Video of wild Northerns fighting

[critterguy]

Stumbled on this little gem and thought I'd post it. Amazing how quickly the fight escalates and boy can they run on those little legs!(wonde

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgxTjzE4yOw

[Fatal_S]

Holy be-jebus!!! I've seen that same behavior from my males, but to see it go unchecked. My heart was in my throat for the poor guy who had his throat munched. I can't believe it. And he ran so fast! What an amazing and horrifying video. I think I need to go cuddle a skink now...

[lizardman59]

holy crud that was amazing how fast they were man that other one wasnt letting go

[Ser-J]

Poor guy .His blue tongue hung down lifelessly.

[Baby Blue]

Holy cow is all I have to say

[Jeff]

Anyone who is considering breeding their skinks should realize that it is not uncommon for that to result when you put a male with a female that is not ready to breed. Those two actually paused briefly before the conflict escalated. I have seen skinks lock-up and go into a death roll in a fraction of a second. Just be prepared to deal with it because there is not really any way to determine if the skinks are ready to breed other than to put them together.

This can also happen with skinks that have lived together "peacefully" for a long time. That is why it is recommended to never keep most species of BTS together. If one of those skinks had a hold on a leg or tail rather than a head, it probably would have come off.

While I don't enjoy seeing that, it's a very good video Joseph.

[Katrina]

Exactly what Jeff said.

Thanks for the educational video. Scary.

[critterguy]

What is interesting is that clearly this aggression is not an artifact of captivity, or confined spaces. Apparently bluetongues have not evolved many methods of display etc. to settle their disagreements in a peaceful manner. I wonder what happened when those two skinks rounded the bend? I'd be willing to bet the loser got away without too much damage but if the same situation were to occur in a relatively close environment where the loser could not get away the results would not have been pretty.

Jeff: Just wondering-when you pair skinks do you pair them inside a cage or on the floor outside? Would it be wise to place them some distance away from each other?

Oh-and the main reason that this caught my eye(their are a few videos of similar behavior in Easterns) is considering that relatively few people live in North Australia, seeing true wild Northerns like those ones is a real treat!(think this is actually the only youtube video of wild Northerns) They look quite similar to the darker ones we have here though supposedly Northerns from this vicinity frequently display peppering like that on Kimberley Northerns.(wonder where the majority of the stock in the US etc. originates from?)

[Jeff]

Jeff: Just wondering-when you pair skinks do you pair them inside a cage or on the floor outside? Would it be wise to place them some distance away from each other?

I pair them in front opening enclosures that are about shoulder high. It's much easier to manage them for me. You saw how fast they can move when they want to! I don't want to be chasing them around on my hands and knees and have them get under some furniture where I can't get them.

After dozens of mating sessions, (both successful and unsuccessful) it's pretty easy to tell how things are going to go within a few seconds of putting them together. Most of the time you can tell when the female is going to fight back before they actually get into it. The problems for me come when the female seems willing at first, but for some reason the male is unable to get the right grip fast enough. Sometimes after giving him some time to get the job done, she will get fed up with his ineptness and let him know it. So on top of his failure to perform, he is humiliated further by being beat up by a girl.

[Scotts1au]

My male blotchies act similarly for a short period of the year,not so violent. Of course wild blueys are wilder. Scincoides are generally more violent to each other and will hunt each other down whereas blotchies are more willing to put up with each other around as long as the enclosure is big enough.

[SesameSeed]

That was pretty interesting to see. I felt terrible for the guy in the choke hold, but it brightened me up a bit to see how they ran! Couldn't help but laugh at the little guys fly. Hope he got away!

[Roheryn]

Hope he did....looked like Wrestle-Mania to me

[critterguy]

Does anyone have any guess if this is indeed two males fighting? Or something else? I went ahead and assume it was two males as they appear to be bluffing each other for a brief moment in the video.(assumed if it was a male with an unreceptive female it might have been different).

[Jeff]

It looked like two males to me. The reason is the way they were both tilting the top of their back toward the other one at the same time. From what I have seen, that is a typical defensive posture that a northern only seems to take when it feels threatened. With a male and female, the male (if desiring to breed) will behave as though he is a predator stalking prey until he lunges at the female. A female will sometimes take that "back tilting" posture if she is not ready to breed yet. The male doesn't do it because he is pursuing the female, and is not trying to defend himself. If the male is not ready to breed the two will usually pass by each other without any conflict, because they can just keep going. That is NOT the case if they are confined together in captivity. They can't just continue on their way. They will run into over and over again, and most pairs will combat at eventually.

It could actually be any two skinks, but it is fighting behaviour, not mating behaviour. The most likely combination of skinks that would fight like that (when they have the option to just pass by each other and continue on their way) is two males.

[Edward]

Right on. Excellent analysis, Jeff.
By the way, I can't see the video as I have a filter on my computer that blocks youtube, but based on the description of the "action," I believe your observations are absolutely correct.

[xxmonitorlizardxx]

What were they doing in the begining? Sizing each other up?

[critterguy]

Jeff: do you suppose blue tongues in the wild maintain territories with boundaries? Or if they just plain don't like eachother and react agonistically or ignore(which would restrict population density in a similar manner I'd bet).

[critterguy]

To compare- I suppose that this is breeding behavior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AKmfANU ... re=related

[Katrina]

Rather than bringing up threads that are older than two months, please just start a new thread and link the last one. Forum rules.

Thanks!