It lives on the schist rock tors of Central Otago where it inhabits crevices and fissures. When conditions are good it sun basks at crevice entrances or out on the rock faces. The diet of the Otago skink is made up of invertebrates such as flies, moths, weta, dragonflies and beetles, as well as soft fruit such as berries. It will also eat smaller lizards. When this sizeable lizard is actively foraging it will sneak up and then pounce on it’s prey, snapping it in its wide jaws. It is an important seed distributor for the native divaricating shrubs such as Coprosma, Corokia and especially the porcupine shrub Melicytus alpinus. It’s a reasonably social lizard, and often spends time in male-female pairs and family groups. However it is very territorial towards other lizard species, and for example will not want to share a rock tor with grand skinks. 

Otago skinks are very long lived, and can reach forty years or more. They are also rather slow to breed, reaching sexual maturity at 4 -6 years and having 1 - 4 offspring once a year, or sometimes only once every two years.