Cunningham’s skinks are protective parents

USC researchers have shed new light on the way reptiles care for their young after capturing rare footage of skinks fighting off Eastern Brown snakes and chasing magpies. Husband and wife research team Dr Greg Watson and Dr Jolanta Watson (who work at USC’s Fraser Coast campus) used cameras in the Snowy Mountains over a three-year period to study the behaviour and ecology of the Cunningham’s skink, Egernia cunninghami, and were surprised to record evidence of lizards actively defending their offspring agai