Meet the Land mullet
The land mullet is one of the largest members of the skink family, reaching about 50–60 cm long. Adults are glossy black or dark brown with smooth, shiny scales, a blunt head and a pale ring around the eye.
Its odd name comes from that resemblance: the blunt head, large smooth scales, size and dark colour reminded people of a mullet fish.
Land mullets live along rainforest edges in coastal New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland, sheltering in hollow logs or burrows among the roots of fallen trees and basking in sunny gaps. They are usually shy and are often heard crashing through leaf litter before they are seen, but in some national parks they have learned to scavenge around picnic and camping areas.
Young eat mostly insects, but adults are largely vegetarian, with around 80% of their diet fallen fruit, berries, leaves and flowers. They give birth to about four to nine live young in late summer, and the young may stay in family groups for a while. Gray described it in 1845, and it has since moved from Egernia to its own genus Bellatorias, from the Latin for 'warlike'.
Where it lives
Coastal eastern Australia, patchily from around the Hawkesbury River and Gosford in New South Wales north to the Conondale Range in south-eastern Queensland, from sea level up to about 860 m.