Liopholis kintorei
Silhouette: David Orr · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The great desert skink (Liopholis kintorei or Egernia kintorei), also known commonly as Kintore's egernia and by various other names including tjakura in various Aboriginal Australian languages, is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is native to the western half of Australia. It is a burrowing lizard and extremely social.
The species is known as Liopholis kintorei or Egernia kintorei. The specific name, kintorei, is in honour of Algernon Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore, a British politician who was a colonial governor of South Australia.
One of the common name of this skink is great desert skink. Aboriginal Australian names for the skink include tjakura, mulyamiji, tjalapa, warrana (also spelt warrarna), and nampu. The great desert skink is a medium-sized skink, reaching an average snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 19–20 cm (7.5–7.9 in), weighing around 350 g (12 oz). It has smooth, small, glossy scales and is mostly rust-coloured on the top of the body, with the belly a vanilla colour. It has relatively large circular eyes and a short snout.
They can be distinguished from Egernia striolata because they... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Great Desert Skink sighting in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 19th most-seen of the 25 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.
November
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Great Desert Skink in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–October and December–January, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Great Desert Skink sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, in our data
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Great Desert Skink sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Scincidae
The closest relatives of the Great Desert Skink that you can see in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (family Scincidae, Skinks) are Leonhardi's Ctenotus (about 20%), Massive-gibber Ctenotus (about 20%) and Leopard Ctenotus (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Desert Skink is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (5 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.
