I was on my knees with my potato fork in my hand. As I rammed the fork into the black, rich top soil I began unearthing the fall’s potato crop. As one quite large potato came to the surface there was a sudden thrashing and spastic motion next to the unearthed potato.

I knew immediately what had happened. The potato fork had accidently hit a lizard called a skink and the blow had resulted in demonstrating to me one of nature’s amazing escape techniques. The skink is the only lizard to inhabit the state of Minnesota and it is famous for its ability to escape predators.

A vertebrae in its tail has a special crack and the tail muscles are designed to separate easily so when a predator attempts to grab the smooth scaled lizard the tail separates from the body and begins to thrash wildly.

The predator attacks the thrashing tail while the rest of the skink speeds off and disappears into the surrounding vegetation.

But me being a wise, retired biology teacher knew better then to grab the thrashing tail. Instead I grabbed the escaping skink which squirmed and attempted to wiggle free from my gloved hand.

Then I was able to produce a Facebook post as I put the skink along with its detached tail into a plastic container, took a picture and shared both with my Facebook friends. Most friends I am sure experienced for the first time viewing a skink with its detached tail.

I love teachable moments.:)

The skink and I go back a long ways. Somewhere in my foggy memory I recall learning about the lizard that lost its tail to escape predation. I had never seen one though until I was preparing my biology room for the opening of school one fall.

I loved having wild creatures in the biology room for the students to view. Every year I would keep my eyes open for a large garter snake to capture and inhabit one of the room’s terrariums for the year. If I ever needed to get my class’s attention a large garter snake worked every time! 🙂

During one of those garter snake capturing trips I accidently discovered a skink and was able to capture it without the dramatic tail separation. That was my first experience with a live skink.

They made very poor biology room exhibits, however, as they are very shy animals and when put in a terrarium they immediately buried themselves in the soil and gravel mixture on the bottom of the terrarium.

That experience with the skink was the beginning of my lifelong attachment to this unique little reptile.

When I was writing a nature column for the magazine Minnesota Out Of Doors and the April edition was approaching I wrote a column titled April Fools. Our three children, Steve, Jill, and Bonnie were the main characters.

They got in a discussion with their parents about animals in nature playing April Fools jokes and of course I bet you know where this is going. About that time a skink is discovered under a board and in an attempt to capture it the skink’s tail falls off.

Dad had to explain the importance of the skink losing its tail and had to assure the children that it’s tail would regrow.

That skink story is now a permanent April adventure in my book Children In The Outdoors, Volume I.

After writing my nature column for six years Children In The Outdoors grew into three volumes and I was able to travel to the four states of Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Iowa and do teacher workshops.

Each attending teacher received the three volume set of Children In The Outdoors and the April Fools adventure was able to be shared with countless elementary school children.

After retiring from my thirty-four year teaching career I spent eight more years as the Coordinator of the Bonanza Education Center located in the Big Stone Lake State Park in western Minnesota. It’s native prairie hills were homes for the skink and a day was considered successful if on our hikes we were able to view and capture the illusive skink.

It was music to my ears as little second graders squealed and giggled while daring to touch the smooth scales of the speedy skink. And then watch their little eyes widen as I described how the animal’s tail separated during a predator attack.

When our grandchildren began arriving they learned about their Moms and Dad being a part of their Grandfather’s Children In The Outdoors series. One day as they were all gathered around me they asked why I didn’t feature each of them in a story in a future book.

If you think it is difficult to say no to your children wait until you have grandchildren.

That request remained fused in my brain so when I wrote my children’s book Holiday Adventures for Kids I included each grandchild in a story.

Whether it was legal or not I declared April Fool’s Day a holiday. So the skink story lived to be shared another day and the only change was that our three grandsons, Tristin, Bryce and Logan replaced our children and the skink adventure was told through their eyes instead.

Hopefully I won’t be charged with plagiarism. 🙂

So the potato harvest is complete and there is a unique little lizard hunkered down under some of our garden litter that is concentrating on re-growing its tail. I hope it is successful and thanks little lizard for reminding me of our long history together.

And blogger friends I hope you enjoyed this tail…..oops, I mean tale! 🙂

Until next time.