Plestiodon elegans
Silhouette: David Orr · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Plestiodon elegans, the five-striped blue-tailed skink or Shanghai elegant skink, is a species of skink. It is found in China, northern Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Senkaku Islands of Japan. Selected body temperature, thermal tolerance and thermal dependence of food assimilation and locomotor performance in adult blue-tailed skinks, Eumeces elegans. WG Du, SJ Yan, X Ji, Journal of Thermal Biology, 2000
Growth, sexual size dimorphism and female reproduction of blue tailed skinks, Eumeces elegans. DU Wei-Guo, JI Xiang, Zoological Research, 2001 Media related to Plestiodon elegans at Wikimedia Commons Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink sighting in Taroko National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 14 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August–September and November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink in Taroko National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May, October and December–February, the lowest months.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Taroko National Park, in our data
Taroko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Scincidae
The closest relatives of the Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink that you can see in Taroko National Park (family Scincidae, Skinks) are Taiwan Alpine Skink (about 10%) and Indian Forest Skink (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Five-striped Blue-tailed Skink is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Taroko National Park (13 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.
