Reptilia · Squamata
Trachylepis striataPeters, 1844
Striped Skink
Photograph by Mahomed Desai, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating skink from the Afrotropic region, reaching 113 mm snout to vent.
Also called African Striped Mabuya.
Once published as Mabuya wahlbergi — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Scincidae › Trachylepis
- Grows to
- 113mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
Longer than 84% 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
41 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
- 2014
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 34.7–35.2°C94–95 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 36.55°C98 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 33.7–39.4°C93–103 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 113mm4.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 81.4mm3.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 81.4mm3.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 28mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 28mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 31.22g1.1 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 5.46g0.19 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1g0.04 oz
max 113 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Grassland, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2800m
- Range size
- 5,399,584km²
Omnivorous (e.g., Auerbach 1987)/Arthropods (Pianka 1986, Loveridge 1953, Simbotwe 1980, Spawls et al. 2023)/invertebrates (Jeffery 1993)/insectivorous (Nagy et al. 1999, Vonesh 1998, Broadley 1962) / arthropods and lizards (Loveridge 1955, see also Spawls et al. 2018), insects and other invertebrates, occasionally geckos (Pietersen et al. 2021)
(e.g., Huey et al. 2001, Mesquita et al. 2016), Active foraging (van Huyssteen 2023) / Sit and Wait (Brown and Nagy 2007)
e.g., Broadley 2008, Schleicher 2015, Spawls et al. 2018, Augros 2019, van Huyssteen 2023, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Kirchhof et al. 2023, Miguel Vences, Frank Glaw, Aurelien Miralles, pers comm. August 2021, Spawls et al. 2023
variable (Arboreal, Loveridge 1953, Broadley 2000, Terrestrial, Dunham et al. 1988, Gans et al. 1965, Vonesh 1998, Meik et al. 2002, Haagner et al. 2000, Malonza and Bwong 2023), arboreal and saxicolous (Howard and Hailey 1999, Broadley 2008), arboreal and (mostly) terrestrial (Mesquita et al. 2016, Cavalcanti et al. 2023), "essentially arboreal" (Spawls et al. 2018, Spawls et al. 2023), arboreal (Foster et al. 2018) terrestrial and semi-arboreal (Augros 2019), predominantly arboreal (Pietersen et al. 2021), arboreal (van Huyssteen 2023)
0-2300 (Spawls et al. 2018, Hughes and Behangana 2017), 0-2800 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 6.7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–9eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.6–7eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
- First breeds at
- 12–18months
Viviparous / oviparous (Augros 2019), Spawls et al. 2023 discuss clutches
2-20, but mean of 4.2 (Simbotwe 1980), 4-7 (Loveridge 1920), 4 (n=1, Pakenham 1983), means 4.2-7 (Mesquita et al. 2016), max 9 (Spawls et al. 2018, Spawls et al. 2023), 4-9 (Pietersen et al. 2021)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Scincoidea
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1844
- Type locality
- Mozambique
Keeping one
18 in × 18 in × 18 in(45 × 45 × 45 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 4.5 in (113 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 94–95 °F (34.7–35.2 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
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.
4kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 31 g, the heaviest recorded for Striped 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 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 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 · a typical adult
- — Longest recorded life
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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). Trachylepis striata. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/trachylepis-striata
@misc{trachylepis_striata_2026,
title = {Trachylepis striata},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/trachylepis-striata}
}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.