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We maintained adult many-lined sun skinks (Mabuya multifasciata; 12 females and 12 males) collected from Hainan (southern China) in September 2006 in two outdoor enclosures to examine the effect of feeding condition on selected body temperature (Tsel).Skinks shifted their thermal preferences when fasted.Temporal variation in Tsel was not found within each sex x feeding condition combination,and neither in fed nor in fasted skinks did the mean values for Tsel differ between sexes.Body temperatures selected by fed skinks fell within the range from 30.2 to 33.9 ℃,and those selected by fasted skinks within the range from 25.1 to 31.8 ℃.Body temperatures (31.8 ± 0.3 ℃) selected by fed skinks were on average 4.0 ℃ higher than those (27.8 ± 0.4 ℃) selected by fasted skinks.Fasted skinks had no difficulty in attaining higher body temperatures,but they voluntarily shift their thermal preferences downwards to save energy.This finding suggests an adaptive mechanism adopted by many-lined sun skinks to enhance their fitness during the periods when food availability is low.