Interns Find Northern Prairie Skinks

Photo by Kayla Vance

A few weeks ago, the statewide land stewardship interns were working on INHF's Kothenbeutel Prairie, a remnant prairie in Franklin County. During the two days they were working on the property, they found three Northern Prairie Skinks.

 

Photo by Kayla Vance

Northern Prairie Skinks are typically 5-7.5 inches long and lightly colored with black stripes. They require a native prairie habitat to survive. In tall grass prairie, they prefer a habitat with flat rock shelter near prairie streams. Northern Prairie Skinks sun intermediately in the morning and early afternoon but spend a majority of their time under rocks and thatch.

Eager to get a closer look, the group of interns surrounded one of the skinks until they could flush it out of a bunch of grass and catch it.

“I had never seen a skink before,” said Kayla Vance, a land stewardship intern from Davenport. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure I ever would so it was awesome.”

After catching it, the interns also took a few close-ups to share!