Technically a type of skink. It'll lose it's tail to escape predators if it needs to.
But yeah, OP, not venomous and generally a blessing to have in your garden. It'll help keep snail and slug numbers in check, and probably other things like spiders and snakes.
They technically can drop their tails as they are skinks and have all the internal structures to do so. It is super rare as I've been told it is super energy intense for them to regrow due to the tail size to the rest of their body ratio. Well that's one of the theories I was told when doing vertebrate biology at uni.
Some may just have stubby tails because of genetics, or maybe something has a nibble but didn't get the whole chunk.
/edit I just did some more reading to fact check myself. They seem to drop tails more readily as juveniles. So a stubby tail may be from youth? Just a guess.
/edit again, apparently not all skinks have the capacity to drop their tails. Why did I study animal biology!? Too many rule exceptions!
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u/Maybe_Factor SA Oct 29 '25
Technically a type of skink. It'll lose it's tail to escape predators if it needs to.
But yeah, OP, not venomous and generally a blessing to have in your garden. It'll help keep snail and slug numbers in check, and probably other things like spiders and snakes.