THE LEDGER (Lakeland, Florida) 11 May 05 Sand Skinks Elusive Creatures
They leave S-shaped designs in the sand. Federal and state wildlife officials classify them as threatened.
They live on the sand ridges of Central Florida.
That sums up what most people know about sand skinks, if they've heard of them at all.
Sand skinks are among the creatures that live on the Lake Wales Ridge, a chain of prehistoric islands that was all the dry real estate there was in peninsular Florida at one time.
Like better-known species such as gopher tortoises, their habitat is often bulldozed to make way for new development.
This is the time of year when biologists try to learn more about these elusive reptiles because the skinks become more active and easier to detect as temperatures rise.
The survey method is fairly low-tech. It involves placing a 2x2 piece of plywood on bare ground and going back every week or so and looking for tracks.
The sand skinks forage in the sand beneath the board, leaving trails in the sand that can look like anything from a winding river bed to a plateful of macaroni.
The data collection is simple. Either tracks are there or they aren't.
In fact it's good to stop here and mention that one of the important aspects in wildlife surveys is the ability to collect information along fixed routes, which are marked with flags, metal poles, wooden stakes or some other method. If you see these markers or the boards, that's what they're for. Don't disturb them or you could screw up someone's research project.
As wild creatures go, sand skinks are a relatively recent addition to the scientific list of creatures.
The sand skink was not officially described in the scientific literature as a separate species until 1910 by Leonard Stejneger (1851-1943), who was head curator of reptiles and amphibians and later biology at the Smithsonian Institution.
Sand skinks look like small snakes -- they're only about 5 inches long -- with tiny legs.
They belong to a group of reptiles known as "sand swimmers." That means they move around just under the ground's surface looking for something to eat. Termites make up a major part of their diet.
Mole skinks and some species of snakes, such as crowned snakes, also are in this category.
Because of their secretive habits, sand skinks are rarely seen and scientists are still trying to learn more about what they need to survive.
Surveys at various wildlife preserves -- I tagged along on my first one last year at Polk's Crooked Lake Prairie -- are part of that research because they provide a baseline, a basis for comparison to spot population trends.
I use population trends in a generic sense here.
I haven't talked with anyone or read anything that leads me to believe there are any population estimates for sand skinks.
What do exist are lists that give the number of locations where sand skinks are found, but it's unclear how big a territory each sand skink occupies or where the young go after they hatch.
One small step in sand skink research occurred when a University of Florida student named Byrum Cooper set out on a quest to figure out how to capture these elusive creatures.
This short 1953 account, published in the Florida Academy of Sciences Quarterly Journal, concluded a potato rake and quick hands were the best tools for collecting specimens.
Some of you may know this young student as Buck Cooper, the retired B-52 navigator who served as naturalist at the Street Nature Center in Winter Haven for several years.
By the way, nowadays it is illegal to collect sand skinks or any other protected species without a permit from state and federal wildlife officials.
One interesting side benefit of sand skink surveys is learning about other creatures that inhabit the scrub.
Researchers have reported finding millipedes, centipedes, ants, termites, spiders and various other even smaller beetles and other invertebrates.
Sometimes other reptiles are using the board as a temporary shelter.
They include scrub lizards, a type of lizard called a racerunner and various species of snakes.
One researcher even found a baby rattlesnake.
I guess it's a good idea to lift the boards carefully.
Sand Skinks Elusive Creatures