Types of Lizards in Michigan: Native Skinks, Racerunners, and a Common Look-Alike
September 11, 2026
Most people picture snakes and turtles when they think of Michigan reptiles, but the state also has a small, often-overlooked lizard population. Understanding the types of lizards in Michigan starts with a surprising fact: only two species actually live here year-round, and a third lizard frequently mentioned in online searches has never established a wild population in the state at all.
This guide breaks down each of Michigan’s native lizards, where to find them, and why a well-known southern relative keeps showing up in identification questions despite not belonging to Michigan’s fauna. Michigan’s cold winters and glacial history have shaped which reptiles could settle here, and that history explains a lot about the state’s short lizard list.
| Species | Native to Michigan? | Typical Size | Key Identifying Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five-Lined Skink | Yes, common in Lower Peninsula | 5 to 8.5 inches | Bright blue tail in juveniles, five cream stripes |
| Six-Lined Racerunner | Yes, one known population (state-threatened) | 6 to 9 inches | Six pale stripes on a dark, fast-moving body |
| Eastern Fence Lizard | No confirmed wild population | 4 to 7.25 inches | Rough, spiny scales and blue belly patches on males |
1. Five-Lined Skink
The five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) is the lizard Michigan residents are most likely to actually see. According to Michigan State University researchers at Animal Diversity Web, the range of this species extends south from the lower peninsula of Michigan, southern Ontario, and eastern New York to northern Florida, and west to Wisconsin, part of Michigan’s upper peninsula, Missouri, and eastern regions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. That range means the species turns up across a wide swath of the Lower Peninsula and even reaches into parts of the Upper Peninsula.
Identification is fairly straightforward once you know what to look for. Young skinks have a striking electric-blue tail paired with five cream-colored stripes running down a dark body, and Canadian wildlife researchers note that juveniles and some adults can be readily identified by five cream-coloured stripes that extend down the length of their green-black bodies, though the species becomes more uniformly bronze with age, and hatchlings and juveniles have bright blue tails. Mature adults lose much of that blue coloring and take on a more muted, olive-bronze appearance.
Habitat preference explains why sightings cluster in specific pockets of the state. Five-lined skinks prefer moist, but not wet, wooded or partially wooded areas with significant cover and abundant basking sites, including wood or brush piles, stumps, logs, rocky outcrops, loose bark, and abandoned buildings. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources adds that lizards bask in the sun to raise their body temperature and are less active on cooler or hot days, and can be found in a variety of habitats such as woodlands and grasslands across the state.
Records from the Michigan Herp Atlas show confirmed sightings scattered from Roscommon and Cheboygan counties down through Kent, Saginaw, and Monroe counties, reflecting how patchy but widespread the species really is. These skinks often share fallen logs and brush piles with other woodland residents, including several chipmunk species found throughout Michigan that use the same debris for cover. In sandier, sun-exposed clearings, they may also cross paths with ground-dwelling wasps native to Michigan that nest in similar open, disturbed habitats.
Diet-wise, five-lined skinks feed on insects and other small invertebrates, making them useful pest controllers in gardens and woodpiles. One quirky detail worth knowing: Michigan State University’s BioKIDS project notes that five-lined skinks are hosts and carriers of the common chigger, a species that also attacks humans, so it’s worth washing up after handling logs or leaf litter where one has been spotted.
Pro Tip: Don’t assume every blue-tailed lizard you see is a juvenile. Some adult five-lined skinks retain faint traces of blue at the very tip of the tail, so focus on the five distinct body stripes for a confident identification.
2. Six-Lined Racerunner
The six-lined racerunner (Aspidoscelis sexlineata) is Michigan’s rarest lizard by a wide margin, and finding one in the wild takes both luck and geography on your side. Wildlife Informer reports that in Michigan, there is only one confirmed population, in Tuscola County in the east-central part of the state, where the racerunners prefer dry, open habitats with sparse vegetation and sandy soil that are rare in Michigan’s landscape, which is why the species is listed as “Threatened” by the state.
Physically, this species looks nothing like a skink. It has six pale yellow or white stripes running down a dark green or black back, a slender build, and a reputation for speed rather than stealth. Wildlife Informer describes their movement as more like a bolt of electricity than a casual scurry, which makes catching a clear look at one genuinely difficult.
Behavior sets racerunners apart from Michigan’s other native lizard as well. While skinks tend to be most active during milder parts of the day, racerunners are most active during the hottest parts of the day, basking on open sand and darting between sparse patches of vegetation. Their diet reflects that open-habitat lifestyle: racerunners feed on ants, beetles, spiders, and other small invertebrates, putting them in occasional competition with some of the same prey favored by ground-hunting spiders found throughout Michigan.
Because their sandy, open habitat is so limited in Michigan, racerunners often share ground with soil-nesting insects that need similar conditions, including several bee species native to Michigan that also depend on loose, well-drained sand for nesting burrows. That overlap is part of why conservationists watch Tuscola County’s remaining open-sand habitat so closely.
Important Note: The six-lined racerunner’s only known Michigan population is legally protected under the state’s threatened species status. If you’re in Tuscola County and spot one, observe from a distance and avoid disturbing the sandy habitat it depends on.
3. Eastern Fence Lizard
Here’s where a lot of online searches go wrong: the eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) is a real, well-documented species, but it does not have a confirmed wild population in Michigan. The National Wildlife Federation states plainly that eastern fence lizards are found from New York south to northern Florida and as far west as Ohio and Arkansas, which places Michigan just outside the species’ known range.
The Indiana Herp Atlas narrows this down further for the Midwest specifically, noting that in the Midwest, the Fence Lizard is found in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Even within those states, populations are patchy. Ohio naturalists have observed that fence lizards occur commonly, at least locally common, throughout parts of the southern third of Ohio, meaning the nearest wild populations sit well south of Michigan’s border, separated by the same glacial history that limited the state’s other lizard diversity.
So why does this species come up so often in Michigan lizard searches? Identification confusion is the most likely culprit. Fence lizards have a body type genuinely different from Michigan’s natives: fence lizards are spiny lizards, meaning they have rough, pointed scales on their backs, with bodies that are gray to brown in color, and males with patches of bright blue scales on their bellies and throats. That rough, spiny texture is the giveaway. Michigan’s five-lined skink and six-lined racerunner both have smooth, glossy scales, so a lizard with a visibly rough, textured back was not photographed in the wild here.
Occasional reports of unusual lizards in Michigan backyards typically trace back to released or escaped pets rather than an established population. Wildlife Informer notes that non-native lizards may occasionally be spotted, like escaped or released pets such as green anoles, geckos, or even bearded dragons, but Michigan’s winters are far too harsh for them to survive long-term, and these species do not have breeding populations in the wild. The same logic applies to any reported fence lizard sighting: it’s almost certainly a released pet, a misidentified skink, or a lizard spotted while traveling rather than evidence of a new Michigan species.
For anyone specifically hoping to see a true eastern fence lizard in its native range, the closest reliable opportunities are rocky, open woodlands in southern Indiana or the unglaciated hill country of southern Ohio. Readers curious about how lizard diversity changes across the country can compare Michigan’s short list to states with far more species, such as the lizard fauna found in Tennessee or the considerably larger lineup documented among Florida’s native lizards. Desert states tell an even more dramatic story, with the dry-adapted species found among Arizona’s native lizards illustrating just how much climate shapes which reptiles can survive in a given region.
Common Mistake: Assuming a rough-scaled, blue-bellied lizard photographed in Michigan is a wild eastern fence lizard. Without a confirmed wild population in the state, the far more likely explanations are a released pet or an out-of-state photo.
Anyone interested in keeping a pet lizard species with similar coloring and behavior, rather than hoping to spot one outdoors, can look into common pet reptile species suited to home enclosures, since captive-bred fence lizards and their relatives are available through the reptile trade in states where wild collection is legal.
Michigan’s reptile diversity may be modest when it comes to lizards, but the state makes up for it with one of the most extensive snake faunas in the Great Lakes region, and readers curious about that broader reptile picture can explore the full range of snake species documented throughout Michigan. Between the five-lined skink’s woodland habitats, the six-lined racerunner’s single protected population, and the persistent confusion around the eastern fence lizard, Michigan’s lizard story turns out to be more interesting than its short species count suggests.