The Olive Tree Skink inhabits the canopy of coastal forests and offshore islands. It is more easily encountered on the trunks of beachfront coconut palms adjacent to such forests. It rarely descends to the ground, and its large clutch of up to 14 eggs are laid in the canopy - either amongst epiphytes or under tree bark.

The dorsal surface is pale to medium brown, with a series of narrow, broken bands of black and white scales which are better developed at the shoulders and neck. The underside is a distinctive pale green. The snout is pointed, the eyes medium in size, and the scales are weakly keeled. The head is pale green and mottled with black.

Juvenile appear quite different - the body is patterned with black bands which are thicker than the intervening brown body colour, and these bands stop abruptly at the base of the plain brown tail.

The species ranges from Burma and Indochina through southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore to Borneo, Java and their smaller, adjacent islands.

Family : SCINCIDAE
Species : Dasia olivacea
Size (snout to vent) : 12 cm
Size (total length) : 29 cm

References : H1, H2, H3, H4

Top three photos : specimen on beachfront coconut tree at Krabi, Thailand.

Lowermost photo : juvenile in back-beach mangrove habitat at Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin, Singapore.