These are secretive lizards, so it's no surprise their disappearance went largely unnoticed
Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Whitaker's skink are secretive lizards, so maybe it's no surprise their disappearance from the Kāpiti Coast went unnoticed. The skink is one of more than 3700 native species in decline, yet Kiwis believe conservation efforts are going well, reinforced by success stories for the likes of kaka and kākāpō. Ged Cann looks at Whitaker's skink, one of New Zealand's forgotten species.
Whitaker's skink are so discreet, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has only four images of the critter.
The organisation class the skink as 'Nationally Endangered', with a small but stable population of 250–1000 mature individuals.
Compare this to the Tuātara, which is estimated to comprise more than 20,000 mature adults, with a stable population that may grow by up to 10 per cent over 10 years, and you might question why the little lizard doesn't get more press.
**READ MORE:
* World's rarest gull calls NZ home
* We used to have so many of these birds that we used them for pillows**
*** Kiwis believe native biodiversity in good shape despite 2800 species in decline
* Great white shark joins kiwi and kākāpō on list of species the Government wants to save
* Let's not forget about the banded dotterel**
DOC community ranger Angus Hulme-Moir said the plight of New Zealand's lizards was often overshadowed by the battle for the birds.
'We get excited about Takahē, but get close to a Takahē - it's a fat chicken.'
According to research from Lincoln University 70 per cent of the public felt the the state of the country's native plants, animals and fish was adequate or doing well last year, despite more than 900 native species approaching extinction and another 2800 declining or at risk.
Hulme-Moir has been working with community groups in Pukerua Bay, where until five years ago the skink could be found scuttling about the cliffs.
He said the most remarkable thing about the skink was their longevity, with a Whitaker's able to live as long as 50 years – 10 times the standard lifespan of most tropical lizards.
But with that longer lifespan came very poor reproduction rates.
'They are awful reproducers, they average two babies every second year or something like that. They compensate with that with their longevity, but obviously with the introduction of predators they were just getting knobbled,' Hulme-Moir said.
Compare this to the introduced Australian rainbow skink which pumped out 50 to 60 eggs every year.
Even more strange, the New Zealand skink gives birth to live young – a real oddity for a lizard.
According to Forest and Bird, the last skink found on the cliffs around Pukerua Bay was five years ago, but Hulme-Moir said there was a chance some remained.
A DOC spokeswoman said Whitaker's skink were still found on five off-shore islands off the Coromandel Peninsula.
'Two are natural and survived on small islands that rodents never reached, and three have been translocated to islands after rodents were eradicated. There's also a small population on the mainland, near Wellington,' she said.
'The slow life-history of Whitaker's skink means that the translocated populations will be very slow to build to populations large enough to be easily detected by monitoring.
'A team of lizard experts are due to undertake a monitoring trip of translocated populations in February 2018.'
The skink can grow up to 10cm long, not including the tail.