Let me clarify some things here: the species isn’t new to science. But it is new to my native habitat.
It’s a northern coal skink. They normally are found in the higher elevations of West Virginia, but this one has found a nice home on a high ridgetop forest in the middle of the Allegheny Plateau.
I first thought it was the more common five-lined skink, but it was the wrong color and lacked the blue tail that is the trademark of that species.
So now we have three species of lizard on the farm, along with five species of snake, two species of turtle, seven species of salamander, and five species of frog.
