Hello all,
This morning i got woke up by the phone, it was my mom (all exited, and as a side note my mom didn't used to be "into" herps until ME). Anyway she told me she found a lizard on her doorstep yesturday, she put it in a plastic container and saved it to bring to me. Now normally she wouldn't have caught it and brought it back to me, but the little one is injured and she said when she caught it, it wasn't moving at all. Then she showed up at my door at 10:30 with this little skink (what i think it is ). He/she has several injuries, recently dropped tail and all kinds of little scratches under his/her chin and on top of the body, and his/her right eye is missing. She thought maybe someone ran over it with a lawnmower.
Now the moral delima, do i keep it or let it go??? I do have it set up in a temp cage (pics). With everything wrong with this little one it sure has a strong will for survival. If i take it back to where it was found, i don't know if it would make it long, as i said my mom found it at her doorstep and she lives in a very busy subdivision, and i don't want to release it just anywhere. What would you (personaly) do???
If anyone can help identify it that would be great also. It has to be Missouri native, my mom lives maybe 30 mins from st. louis (if that helps). To me it looks like some type of skink (about 12 inches long), but i'm not positive. Next time i talk to my friend i'm going to have him bring over his Missouri native species bookl, but figured maybe someone from ssnakes might know.
I did hold him/her for a few moments and it seem nice and calm, but it could be very "stressed" at this point.
Here's the pics.
Here's a pic that shows his missing tail, It looks "fresh", but is not bleeding or anything. My mom said that's how he looked when she found him/her.
Here is his temp. home, "if" i keep it i plan on setting up something more naturalistic, and if fecals come back clean.
Thanks for looking and any help,
Jamie
Identifing Lizard
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