Emoia atrocostata
Silhouette: David Orr · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
Emoia atrocostata, commonly known as the littoral whiptail-skink, mangrove skink, or littoral skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. It inhabits mangroves, back-beach vegetation and rocky shorelines. It is semi-aquatic and forages in tidal pools.
The species can be distinguished from the similar many-lined sun skink by the lack of keeled scales on the dorsal surface of the Mangrove Skink. Its colour is grey or brown-grey, flecked with black. There is a faint black band along each side. The throat is often bluish, and the belly greenish or yellow to orange.
E. atrocostata can be found on the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and in Queensland, Australia. Duméril & Bibron, 1839 : Erpétologie Générale ou Histoire Naturelle Complète des Reptiles. vol. 5, Roret/Fain et Thunot, Paris, p. 1-871 (full text).
Lesson, 1830 : Description de quelques reptiles nouveaux ou peu connus. Voyage Autour du Monde Execute par Ordre du Roi, sur la Corvette de La Majeste, La Coquille, exécuté Pendant les Annees 1822, 1823, 1824 et... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bako National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 2 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Littoral Whiptail-skink sighting in Raja Ampat on a given day, based on 25 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 10th most-seen of the 33 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–May and November–December
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Littoral Whiptail-skink in Raja Ampat on a given day, against under 5% in February and August–September, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Littoral Whiptail-skink sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Littoral Whiptail-skink sightings, Raja Ampat ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Bako National Park (Malaysia, about 50%).
Same genus: Emoia
The closest relatives of the Littoral Whiptail-skink that you can see in Raja Ampat (genus Emoia, Emo Skinks) are Pacific Bluetail Skink (about 50%), Kopstein's Emo Skink (about 30%) and Shrub Whiptail-skink (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Littoral Whiptail-skink is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Raja Ampat (25 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
