Scelotes bipes
Silhouette: David Orr · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Scelotes bipes, the silvery dwarf burrowing skink or common burrowing skink, is a species of lizard which is endemic to South Africa. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Common Burrowing Skink sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 32nd most-seen of the 41 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July, September and December–January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Burrowing Skink in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–June, August and October–November, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Burrowing Skink sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Table Mountain National Park, in our data
Table Mountain National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Common Burrowing Skink sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Scincidae
The closest relatives of the Common Burrowing Skink that you can see in Table Mountain National Park (family Scincidae, Skinks) are Cape Skink (about 30%), Red-sided Skink (about 10%) and Linnaeus' Lance Skink (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Burrowing Skink is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Table Mountain National Park (14 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.
