Blue-tailed Snake-eyed Skink

The Christmas Island blue-tailed skink typically grows to a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in). It can be identified by its small black body with two yellow stripes running down the skink's back and onto its vibrant blue tail. The skink can use its blue tail to draw a predator's attention away from its body by separating its tail from its body. The bright color of the skink's tail means predators are much more likely to notice the tail than the skink's black body.

Until the late 1990s, the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink was endemic to Christmas Island and could be found all over the island. It currently exists in captive populations on Christmas Island, at Taronga Zoo, and on a small island (Pulu Blan) in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands where it has been released as part of an assisted colonization trial.

The Christmas Island blue-tailed skink is a forager known as an insectivore. Its diet primarily consists of crickets, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, spiders, and earthworms. It will occasionally eat some vegetation, though insects remain its primary source of food. Because of its small size, the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink forages for its food on the ground, over exposed rocks and low-lying vegetation, and will generally only eat prey that are slower moving.