Habitat: Tropical forests; lives in trees (which is rare among skinks).
Description: Largest of all modern skinks; has a prehensile tail, strong limbs with claws, a broad blunt head, and a short, blunt snout; the ear opening is almost as large as the eye; body scales are large, smooth and therefore relatively few in number; they are arranged in 36-38 rows; the upper side of the body is greenish-white with irregular brown bands; sometimes there are black spots; its head is occasionally a reddish-brown and underside white.
Adaptations/Habitat: This skink is crepuscular (most active at dusk and dawn) and nocturnal. They are the most arboreal of all the skinks, and use their prehensile tail to aid in grasping and holding onto branches and twigs for security. During the day they take shelter in hollows in the larger forest trees. The strangler fig tree Ficus sp. is a preferred habitat. They are slow-moving and docile, though when provoked they will raise up on all four legs and exhale with a sharp, loud hiss through their open mouth. When given the opportunity, they will savagely bite their tormentor. In the roof of the mouth is the Jacobson's organ which it uses in combination with its tongue to find food. They are shy and secretive and seldom stray far from their shelters.
Breeding/Growth:
Diet: Vegetarian, eating a variety of plants; in the wild, the bulk of its diet is made up of the leaves of the creeper Epipremnum pinnatum.
