BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Is it a eastern baby?

No, that is not an Eastern.
That is either a Northern or a Northern x IJ.

Looks like an Eastern to me.

Definitely not an eastern. Northern or northern mix

Looks about as eastern as a centralian,definatly not eastern

I am uncertain why you guys think this is definitely not an eastern

Here is an adult Eastern with a similar pattern from - https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/whawha88/7791241124/

And here are pics of baby easterns from Thunder Bay Herps and to my eye they could be litter mates

http://www.thunderbayherps.com/uploads/E-F2_X_M4.05.JPG

http://www.thunderbayherps.com/uploads/ ... _M7.06.JPG

Dood ,whilst there are similariries, there are differences to,look at tail length relative to body between one in question and rays,also look at adult pic and rays pic to and note bands are getting darker as u move towards tail,also not always so obvious but look at the darkness of neck stripe,easterns even those lacking eye bands are often more pronounced there

I vote for a Northern mix.

Here's my guy, a pure Northern, at ~4 months:

Heres one of my pure northerns,they dont all look like classic northerns

That's nice, Richard. However, we're not comparing northerns. I posted my pics so the op would get an idea of what a true, classic northern looks like in comparison to the picture they posted.

Yeah mate,top one doesnt look like a classic,so thought id show some variety so folk dont assume northern babies should all look loke a classic

To many people expect them to all look reasonably similar and are to quick to label any that dont fit the normal bill a hybrid

Ij are especially bad and getting called hybrids of something,a recent one another page with a long gigasy tail was even labeled a probable eastern cross western for some strange reason,lol


Main point being northerns vary alot in looks,and theres plenty of non classic looking ones out there

Main point being northerns vary alot in looks,and theres plenty of non classic looking ones out there

and there isn't variation in Easterns ????

Considering they are also called the "Common Skinks" I'd think there would be even more variation

The more Easterns I look at the more I think the OP skink is an Eastern.

The first pic you posted are hybrids. Joe ball bred albino easterns to Kimberly Northerns to help introduce some vigor into the albino eastern line. Those beautiful animals are the heterozygous for albino offspring produced. I'm sitting in front of an eastern and a northern right now, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the OPs animal is not an eastern. The biggest giveaway for me is the lack of "fade to black" on the lower half. I know that there are plenty of easterns out there with an Intermedia look to them, no one is denying that. Unfortunately though, this is not one of them

Also the OPs skink has a longer tail than an Eastern would at that size.

The first pic you posted are hybrids Joe ball bred albino easterns to Kimberly Northerns to help introduce some vigor into the albino eastern line. Those beautiful animals are the heterozygous for albino offspring produced

Good grief is there anything pure left out there ?

The biggest giveaway for me is the lack of "fade to black" on the lower half

I noticed this difference but didn't think it was a species trait .... likely because I'm comparing them to hybrids

Thank you clarifying the differences, I've never seen an Eastern in the flesh and can only go by pictures on the Internet which apparently can be accidentally or intentionally mis-labeled

No worries, now you have a few new things to look for in future identification questions.