Broad Headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps)

    

    Able to reach lengths of over a foot the Broad Headed skink is the largest lizard that you are likely to find in North Carolina. They prey primarily on small insects but have been known to eat smaller vertebrates even other skinks.

    You can find these guys in pine and hardwood forests either in the trees r on the ground foraging for food or basking in the sun. The species however is primarily arboreal so if you see one and it runs away it will look for something to climb on. When we caught this female she actually tried to escape by climbing up my professor's leg.