Reptilia · Squamata
Eumeces algeriensisPeters, 1864
Algerian Skink
Photograph by Simon J. Tonge, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating skink from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 210 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Novoeumeces algeriensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Eumeces
- Grows to
- 210mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 28.8years
Longer than 97% of all skinks anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 24 to 500 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
35 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2008
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 28.8years
Carey and Judge 2000, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, Slavens and Slavens 1999 (all 22 and 10 months); TAU museum records: 28 years and 9 months, Grossmann and Schillert 2022: 21+ years
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 210mm8.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 58mm2.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 62mm2.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 218.4g7.7 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 85.4g3 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 8.1g0.29 oz
max 210 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 53m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1850m
- Range size
- 294,439km²
Invertebrates - and lizards (Tarentola mauretanica.; Herrmann and Herrmann 2003), mainly invertebrates, specializing on snails, rarely fruit (del Marmol et al. 2019), "omnivorous, but preferably insectivorous, with a great taste for snails, also feed on scorpions, beetles, birds’ eggs, small lizards and snakes, vegetal content changing with the seasons" (Grossmann and Schillert 2022)
Diurnal / mainly diurnal (del Marmol et al. 2019), diurnal, mainly in the morning and late afternoon (Grossmann and Schillert 2022)
Terrestrial, terrestrial but well capable of climbing (Grossmann and Schillert 2022)
0-1850 (del Marmol et al. 2019), max 1700 (Grossmann and Schillert 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 11eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–9eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.91eggs
e.g., del Marmol et al. 2019, Grossmann and Schillert 2022
3-20 (Hauschild and Gassner 1995, del Marmol et al. 2019, Sanchez-Vialas et al. 2022), 3–7, mostly 4–6 eggs/clutch (Grossmann and Schillert 2022, overall 54 eggs in 11 clutches in Table 2; they think 7 is max, potentially as high as 9 but clutches of 20 are "in the realm of fables" (from Google translate), potentially mixed with E. schneiderii)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- Eumeces algeriensis algeriensis PETERS 1864 Eumeces algeriensis meridionalis DOMERGUE 1901
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1864
- Type locality
- Algeria
Keeping one
2 ft 9 in × 2 ft 9 in × 20.5 in(84 × 84 × 53 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 8.25 in (210 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Algerian Skink. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
24kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 218 g, the heaviest recorded for Algerian Skink — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Scincidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Eumeces algeriensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eumeces-algeriensis
@misc{eumeces_algeriensis_2026,
title = {Eumeces algeriensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eumeces-algeriensis}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.