Skink... ID help needed(for exact species)

[Prajwal J Ullal]

During my last day of stay at Havelock Island we went to Kalaphatar beach and me and my wife along with other couple had went for a brief hike along the beach, basically a km long stretch crawling thru the jungle few meters from the beach and while returning back I spotted this magnificent creature resting on the branch of a tree. It was about 10 feet away from me and was nothing less than 2-3 feet in length. Initially, from a distance, I thought it to be some snake, looking at the length of it, but later realized it to be a skink, no idea which type of skink. It was unusually calm even after sighting me in its vicinity.

EXIF:
Canon EOS 550D
Canon 55-250IS
F/5.6
Shutterspeed 1/125sec
ISO 400-0.3 step exp comp

Location: Kalaphatar beach, Havelock

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

That's a great find, Prajwal. No clue about the skinks of the Andamans. I would encourage you to get in touch with an expert for this. Really would like to know about this species and its habits in that region.

[Prajwal J Ullal]

Abhishek I guess it's Tytler's litter skink, did some google search on skinks of Andaman and came across a description of a skink similar to this one. I hope some experts would like to share a word or experience about this one

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

From the markings on the flanks I would say it is an Andaman litter skink (Eutropis andamanensis). Tytler's appears to be a differently coloured and much larger species to me. Not sure though.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see a species from Andamans again. Did you sight any snakes? Thanks for sharing.