2006
Threatened Species Day fact sheet
About the fact sheet
The Great desert skink is a large burrowing skink which weighs up to 350 grams and is about 440 millimetres from the snout to the tip of the tail when fully grown.
The colour of the upper surface of the skink commonly ranges from light grey to a bright orange-brown while the under-parts range from vivid lemonyellow to creamy grey. The tail is longer than the body, and in good seasons the base of the tail becomes swollen with stored fat reserves.
The Great desert skink is one of two skinks found in the rangelands listed as threatened under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) – the other is the Slater’s skink or Egernia slateri slateri.