Do lizards eat fish? (Snake-like Pics)

So I have this pond:



It's not a really big pond and I have two small fish in it. Well. Maybe HAD is the right word. Because this morning when I go out to the pond I find this guy in the water. I gave him a lift out with a stick and he just sits there and I take this picture.



Now I can't find my fish. Do you think he ate them? He certainly looks big enough -- he's about five inches long. I thought he was a junior frog at first; his face is about as big as a frog's. He looked kind of full, too-- he just sort of sat there awhile before scooting off. I've never seen anything like him before -- what do ya'll think he is? He looks very snake-ish ... he even has a little forked tongue.

or a racoon seeking a midnight snack. The lizard is prolly hanging around the pond for the bugs.

He just was IN the pond... and he looked so... FULL. :P

there's every possibility it couldn't get back out, and was bloated from a near-drowning. That would also explain the lethargy that enabled you to catch the skink - they're normally very quick.

And I guess I'll stop blaming the missing fish on him.

It was one damn big lizard, I'll say that. Probably the biggest I've seen in the wild, (ha! My yard = "the wild" :eyes: ) at least five or six inches long. I see the little tiny skinks all the time, and you're right, they're MUY fast.

You're right, I've seen little skinks in my garden and this is colored exactly the same but they were all really small, no more than 2 or 3 inches long, and this is one Godzilla skink!

water

But I think they're grass snakes.

Some kind of skink, I imagine. I doubt that it eats fish, though.

On edit: Nope, I think you all are right. It is a skink.

Did some googling. It does look like a five-lined skink. But it doesn't eat fish.

They are also always looking for a meal. Five-lined Skinks eat mostly insects, including: crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars. They also eat spiders, earthworms, snails, slugs, isopods, other lizards, and small mice.

Damn.

Herons and Owls will swoop right in and eat the fishies...

Bird of some sort....

One of our neighbors built a beautiful pond and put some koi in it.
Took about two days for it to become the Great Blue Heron Free Buffet.

Also raccoon and possum. Probably one of them ate the fish. I have koi in another pond and so far they have avoided the hunters...

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/reptile/lizardsOfWisconsin6.htm

lizards jaws dont unhinge.. so if the fish couldn't fit in.. something else got them.

but this is your friend.. dont hurt him.. he lives there too..if you must..relocate him but they are wonderful animals. ans he will lang out where there is water.. it is great good fortune to have him.

It's Skink Week! :silly: