Sociality in lizards: family structure in free-living King's Skinks <i>Egernia kingii</i> from southwestern Australia
2002
Masters, C. | Shine, R.
King's Skinks <i>Egernia kingii</i> are large viviparous scincid lizards from southwestern Australia. Although some other species within the genus <i>Egernia</i> are known to exhibit complex sociality, with long-term associations between adults and their offspring, there are no published records of such behaviour for <i>E. kingii</i>. Ten years’ observations on a single family of lizards (a pair of adults plus six successive litters of their offspring) in a coastal suburban backyard 250 km south of Perth also revealed a very stable adult pair-bond in this species. The female produced litters of 9 to 11 offspring in summer or autumn at intervals of one to three years. In their first year of life, neonates lived with the adult pair and all the lizards basked together; in later years the offspring dispersed but the central shelter-site contained representatives of up to three annual cohorts as well as the parents. Adults tolerated juveniles (especially neonates) and their presence may confer direct parental protection: on one occasion an adult skink attacked and drove away a tigersnake <i>Notechis scutatus</i> that ventured close to the family's shelter-site. Although our observations are based only on a single pair of lizards and their offspring, they provide the most detailed evidence yet available on the complex family life of these highly social lizards.
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