Five-lined skinks are fairly common on the Savannah River Site. They live in wooded areas with plenty of leaf litter and rotting logs. Five-lined skinks also inhabit the wooded edges of swamps. They are black with five broad, light-colored stripes down their backs. The tails of juveniles are blue.
Males have a reddish-orange head.
Five-lined skinks range in length from 5 to 8 inches. They can be found from southern New England to northern Florida and extend west to eastern Texas, north to Kansas, Wisconsin and southern Canada. Five-lined skinks eat insects, spiders, earthworms and crustaceans. They live in damp wooded areas, as well as dry scrub oak forests. They can also be found near seasonal wetlands that dry during the summer.