Blue tongued skinks make great pets because they are calm, hardy, easy to handle, fun to feed and pretty darn cool!
Although they can be found as pets all over the world, blue tongued skinks are native to Northern Australia, Irian Jaya and Southern New Guinea. That's where their blue tongue comes in handy; When a blue tongued skink is threatened by a predator, it sticks out its bright blue tongue as a warning - 'DANGER don't touch me I'm poisonous'! In nature, bright colors are rare and often advertise the presence of poison in an animal. Some popular examples include the poison dart frog or red back spider.
The use of bright colors to scare away predators in called aposemitism. Even though the blue tongued skink does have a bright blue tongue, it's not actually poisonous (in fact, it would make a pretty delicious meal for a predator). The skink is mimicking other animals that use aposemitism and fooling predators into beleiving its something that it's not.
