Well these are skinks and these videos show you the two places I am working - Macraes Conservation Area and the Mokomoko sanctuary in Alexandra.
In particular these are the grand (Oligosoma grande) and Otago (Oligosoma otagense) skinks and they are very special - especially to Central Otago!
Grand and Otago skinks are quite rare - DoC has classified them as Nationally Critically Endangered, which means they are very rare and threatened with extinction - they have the same status as the Kakapo. They are two of New Zealand's largest and rarest lizards.Monitoring and working with grand and Otago skinks are one of the main things I am doing on my science programme. In Alexandra there is a small sanctuary that some lizards live in. I spend some of my time looking for the lizards and photographing them.
The reason we photograph the lizards is so that we can identify which individual skink they are. Grand and Otago skinks have distinctive patterns on the side of their heads and down their body that allow us to identify who they are. Each skink has a different pattern and by comparing previous photos we can tell who is who.
The main place to find the skinks is at Macraes Conservation Area and I will be spending a week at a time living there and helping with their skink work.
Here are some interesting facts about grand and Otago skinks:
(see if you can find out what the words in BOLD mean)
They are OMNIVORES. They eat small soft fruit, invertebrates (insects), other plant life and occasionally other small skinks.
They live on rocky schist outcrops in tussock grasslands and can be found around Lake Hawea, Lindis Pass, Alexandra, Macraes Flat and a few other places. They are very rare so you would be very lucky to see one in the wild.
Cats, stoats, weasels, ferrets etc are their main predators but hedehogs are also a big problem. Hedgehogs are not only predators of the skinks but they are also competition - they eat the same things skinks do so then there is less food for the skinks.
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