Animal Behavior: Skink

And What We Can Learn From Them

Skinks are small, quick, unassuming—easy to overlook.

But many species are deeply devoted parents. Blue-tongued skinks give live birth and stay with their young, teaching them to forage, keeping them safe in a world full of larger predators. Some skink mothers will coil around their eggs for weeks, barely eating, keeping them warm and protected from ants and snakes.

When threatened, many skinks drop their tails as a distraction, sacrificing a part of themselves so the rest can escape. It grows back, eventually, but the loss is real.

They are proof that you don’t have to be big to be brave, that care doesn’t require size, and that sometimes survival means letting go of a part of yourself to save the whole.

You can choose to give something up—a friendship, a version of the future you no longer want, who you used to be—and still grieve the loss. Choosing to let something go may be what’s best for yourself and your future, but it doesn’t mean that doesn’t hurt. You’re allowed to grieve for that loss.

Stay wild,

Chris