I want to introduce you
to some humble and hardworking creatures found throughout Australia,
and I'm gonna show you how you can introduce them into your garden.
So this little guy here is the iconic blue-tongue lizard.
Now, he's a member of the skink family.
We have six different species of blue-tongue lizards,
and they're one of the largest of our skink species,
with the land mullet being the largest.
Now, I love this little guy,
and I want you to love them as much as I do.
Nick Clemann is one of Australia's leading experts on reptiles,
especially skinks.
He spends his career researching threatened skink species.
What do you think you've found, Nick? So I've just saw one shoot in here.
I think it's probably a garden skink.
I didn't get a good look at it.
But this is...it's...it's good that I didn't get a good look at it,
because look at this - this has got that
lovely deep leaf litter that lets the lizards get away,
and it...it provides, look, obviously, a good area to forage,
so the skink can get in there and eat...
..it can find the bugs in...in...
..in and amongst this, but also,
there's a real difference
in microclimate, from out...
..out here in the sun, so it gets
in here in the shade and in amongst this leaf litter,
where it's actually really kind of quite cool.
What sort of role do skinks play in the landscape?
Well, in a healthy ecosystem,
skinks are predators, but they're also prey.
So they...they form an important food source
for many species of other wildlife.
What makes a skink a skink?
As a family, skinks,
they're a really diverse group.
We've got more than 400 species in Australia.
And they range from barely 2cm or 3cm long
right up to...to sort of 60cm long for the big land mullets.
Most skinks have got a pretty typical body plan.
They've got four limbs and five fingers.
But they also have every variation you can think of on that theme.
We've got skinks that are more or less legless.
We've got skinks that might only have hindlimbs and no forelimbs
and they swim through the sand.
So there's a great diversity of those animals,
and they're all just adapted for living...
..different areas, different climates, different microhabitats.
So, what have we got here?
He's cool. Ta.
So, we know here we've got a blue-tongue,
but what do you have there, Nick?
So this little guy is a weasel skink.
And the reason that I've brought these two along today
is because they very neatly show
some of the key differences between skinks.
This guy, almost full-grown,
and as you can see, he's a lot smaller.
That blue-tongue's still only young. Mmm.
It's gonna double in size. Yep.
But there are other fundamental differences here.
This little lizard lays eggs. Yep.
The blue-tongues don't. They give birth to live young.
There's a difference in diet.
These little ones eat mainly insects, almost exclusively insects,
whereas the bigger skinks tend to eat a lot more plant material.
They'll eat berries and they'll eat fruits and that kind of thing,
and a lot more...they... they'll eat snails, of course,
but they don't eat as many... anywhere near as many inverts
as these little skinks.
The other really big difference
that we can highlight between these two
is that blue-tongues love this sort of weather.
Love the sunshine. They get out... I know. He's getting frisky.
Yeah. As they warm up, they are.
They get out. They bask in the sun.
Whereas...this is a completely
different kind of behaviour
for these little weasel skinks.
These guys don't bask in the sun.
They spend most of their lives undercover,
in amongst the leaf litter, beneath rotting logs and that sort of thing.
So they...they've got a very different
kind of use of the habitat.
Yeah - so that means that, obviously,
if you have certain gardens,
you can cater for all different types of skinks,
if you do have them in your area.
The more variety in the garden,
the more opportunities you're giving
for the...for these kind of species
that have such a different kind of habitat need.
Yeah. So...it's all about diversity.
Deep leaf litter is always a good thing to have in the garden -
rocks, logs, twigs, that kind of thing.
And...and certainly plants that have that kind of structural diversity...
..at, you know, kind of knee level to ground level,
that...if you've got good structure at that level,
you're probably gonna have a skink-friendly garden.
So, how DO we create an ideal skink habitat?
I'm standing in front of a beautiful Australian garden,
and it's the perfect habitat for skinks, and I'm gonna show you why.
Got a range of different species here, from these grasses.
Other elements are logs, rocks.
With this rock, you can see
that there's shrubs and grasses all around.
Now, this is particularly important,
because if the skink is basking itself
and a predator flies over,
the skink needs to be able to go into the bushes
and feel safe and secure.
Other things as well to be very mindful of
is mulch and bark in the garden.
It's really important to have, especially for the skinks.
It provides a habitat for them to be able to hide,
especially for the smaller species
like your delicate skink or your grass skink,
and what they also do is they find the medium
where it's actually heated up
and they can lay their eggs.
Now, this is great.
We've just had rain over the weekend, so...
..I've got some water here,
and we all know water is a very essential part
of having a habitat garden.
So, as you can see here, we got nice little puddles,
which provides a great water source for little skinks,
so make sure to think about provide...
..if you don't have a pond or a dry creek bed like this,
we need to incorporate water bowls and dishes in the garden
to be able to give them a bit of a water source.
Having a native-skink-friendly garden can be beautiful,
as well as inviting for skinks, if you choose your plants wisely.
And don't forget your grasses,
as they can be a wonderful safe haven as well.
If you want to create some more habitat for your skinks,
I've got the perfect answer.
These lizard boxes are fantastic
and can be incorporated into your garden
to create some extra spaces for your lizards to hide.
You can do larger ones for your larger skink species
like your blue-tongue lizards,
or you can go smaller and have something like this
for your grass skinks or even gecko species.
There's different levels to it
to provide protection for these little guys
on a top level and then a bottom level,
and they can utilise this to be able to come in and out of the box.
Locate the box in an area of part shade, part sun...
..ideally, locating the box next to some protection, like a shrub.
Dig the box into the ground,
pop a rock on top...
..and scatter leaf litter around the opening.
So if you want to build a lizard box in your garden,
look on the Gardening Australia website.
All the details will be there.
Now, next time, we're gonna go even smaller.
We're gonna be looking at diverse species of insects
and how to bring them into your garden.