Roosevelt Park Zoo with Miranda Thompson the Outreach keeper here at the zoo and we are exploring all of the animals or I said just today some but we're going to talk about more animals that they have here and we get to meet a very interesting animal today this is pumpkin yep so this is pumpkin he's a prehensile tailed skink and they get their name.
From their clearly prehensile tail that's wrapping around this log here they kind of use it like a fifth limb to help them hang on into branches I've actually seen him climbing in his enclosure start to fall and he actually catches himself with his tail oh because it's so long he can still reach it and you were telling me something very.
Interesting about him he's kind of like a branch between two animals yep so he's kind of like the cross between a lizard and a snake so when you take a look at him he does have he is clearly a lizard he's got legs he's he's got that lizard body and the long lizard tail um but he does have a head that is shaped more like a snake.
And he does have shorter stumpie legs than what most lizards would have oh very interesting yeah you can definitely tell that his head is shaped different than a regular lizard and also the tail is very very long obviously helpful for falling purposes y oh so does he eat is his diet more of a snake or more of a lizard diet more of a lizard so he's a.
Herbivore okay yep he eats mostly greens lettuce little veggies that he finds he does love fruit that's one of his favorite treats yeah any fruit in particular he likes mangoes I also gave him some papaya yesterday and he loved that too loved that oh he's got good taste then so where is where would you find uh some an animal like pumpkin I'm.
Not even going to try to pronounce his real name but how would you how would you where would you have to go to find one like this so these guys are only found on an island off the coast of Australia called the Solomon Islands M and how how long has he been here with you guys when when do you know about when he got here I believe he got here.
In 2018 2018 okay and but he got his name pumpkin because he was born on Halloween yep so fitting a very fitting name there yep and so we were kind of talking about how what lizard characteristics he has what snake characteristics he has I know snakes mold and he actually does that but he does it in an interesting way yep so the.
Way that he actually sheds his skin is it's about a week- long process because the skin actually comes off in patches mhm M interesting so and about how often do they do that so younger lizards they'll shed a lot more frequently like once every two three weeks and then for him he's down to about once every couple months now okay does that mean that he's.
An older lizard yep yeah and I don't want to say ancient because he's definitely not that far yet but he has slowed down on his shedding process okay so that's kind of how you can tell the birthdays and stuff that that's where they're at and age and then do you just have one of him is he the only uh is he the only pumpkin here yes he is the only.
One that we have here okay interesting and so he's uh in the aquar or in the atrium here where people can find him so they'll just walk to the front front of the zoo and that's where they can find him yep right here okay excellent so what is a typical day like for pumpkin you know what does he like to do during the day are there when I guess when we.
Got here he was sleeping so we woke him up but what does he like to do during the day so he's an aboral lizard he'll spend most of his time climbing he likes to bask under his heat lamp climb around find some food he actually really likes to munch on path sleaves too okay oh what are those like the green leafy plants okay yep so sometimes I'll take.
Cuting of those and just give them to them he loves it and so prehensile teld skinks in particular they have a chemical in their stomach that releases that protects them from any sort of toxins and plants oh wow so in the wild he could just munch on pretty much any type of plant without any concern as to whether or not it's toxic because very.
Interesting he's built for it are a l does is that common in a lot of lizards or not in particular now interesting that's really interesting so how do you take care of him do you have to when he's shedding and stuff is there any care that you guys need to help him along with anything or is he kind of does everything on his own so shedding.
Is a natural process so for the most part they can do it all on their own our thing is just trying to replicate their natural environment the best that we can uh so making sure that his temperature and his humidities are all where they need to be and that just helps the shutting process along yeah his home is actually right here behind us and I oh.
It shut off now but there was like a little humidifier that would make sure that his climate was very humid yes yeah very interesting okay so if we want to see pumpkin here at the zoo how do we find him where where should we go to find pumpkin so 1219 East berck Expressway uh as you're coming along you'll see on the left hand side signs.
For the zoo and you just turn right in and you'll be right here at the front you can see pumpkin great okay well we we're going to put pumpkin back in his home now we're maybe get let him get back to sleep but we're going to send it back to the studio where we're going to tell you what's coming up next so stay tuned.
