Philippine Tree Skink

Description:

It is also known as the emerald tree skink or green tree skink, they can have many body color variation. Some can be fully green, or brown, but usually it's a mix of both. This one I photographed is more brown but is greenish at the head that slowly fades off. This one was actually hatched by me, I found two eggs (last photo) while I was repotting one of my orchids hanging on a mango tree. I initially thought it would be snake eggs because it was oblong, I had no idea what to do as I've never incubated eggs before and I had no idea what it was. First I used a flashlight and check if the eggs are viable, and they were! I tried to replicate the substrate, so I just took some sand and buried the eggs. I let it dry because the eggs were wet from the orchid pot and then they dehydrated and I realized these eggs should be incubated in a wet substrate, so I sprayed the sand (fifth photo). I constantly spray, but not to wet, occasionally it would dry up too soon without me noticing and the eggs would wrinkle and shrink, but when misted would come back to shape. I kept checking with a flashlight and the eggs were live, I waited for a while and during that one of the eggs went bad so there was only one left and a week later, I checked the egg and something was out, I was expecting a snake, but it ended up being a skink to my surprise. So I found the egg on Oct. 3 and it hatched on Nov. 17, so it took 46 days to hatch. After it hatched, I released it back to the same tree I found it.

Habitat:

It is found in arboreal forests of Taiwan, Palawan, Luzon and Sulu archipelagoes in the Philippines, New Guinea as well as the Indo-Australian archipelago and down south to the Solomon and Santa Cruz islands. This subspecies is native to the island of the Philippines, they are arboreal, I notice they prefer mango trees.

Notes:

Local name in Hiligaynon is "Tambalihan" idk what that means but it gives mystique to the elusiveness of the creature. Very elusive, I rarely see them and they are also very shy and fast. Incubation period: 46 days