Skinks slink to new home

IAIN McGREGOR/The Press

NEW HOME: An Otago skink is released into a predator-proof enclosure at the Peacock Springs Wildlife Park at McLeans Island, near Christchurch, yesterday, as part of a breeding programme.

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It is a small step for eight skinks, but a giant leap for an endangered species.

Three Otago skinks and five grand skinks from the high country near Wanaka were released into a predator-proof enclosure yesterday on the outskirts of Christchurch as part of a breeding programme.

The $100,000 purpose-built "skinkery" is part of Isaac Wildlife Trust's 1000-hectare Peacock Springs Wildlife Park at McLeans Island.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson said the skinks' move was a major step for the critically endangered species, which were among New Zealand's largest lizards.

"Survival of these skinks is just as precarious as kakapo and takahe; more fragile than kiwi," she said.

It was hoped the lizards would eventually be released back into the wild.

Department of Conservation southern general manager of operations John Cumberpatch said the skinks' arrival extended an important conservation programme.

Five Otago skinks were transferred to Peacock Springs in 2009 as a trial.

"People don't know much about them, but they can grow up to 35 centimetres long," he said.

Once found right across Otago, the skinks number only a couple of thousand of each species at Macraes Flat.

Introduced predators such as stoats, rats and weasels have severely cut the population since the 1970s. The Grand and Otago Skink Recovery Programme was established in 2002 after evidence suggested both species could be extinct within 15 years.

The Isaac Wildlife Trust had gone to great lengths to build the skinks' enclosure, including trucking in the right kind of schist stone from Central Otago.

Lady Diana Isaac said the trust would have liked more skinks "but they just can't be found".

Skinks were in the news this year after a German tourist was jailed for attempting to smuggle 44 skinks and geckos out of New Zealand in his pants.

Yesterday, a Massey University scientist urged the Government to produce a co-ordinated national strategy to halt the increase in threatened species.

Mark Seabrook-Davison said in his doctoral thesis that tough, new conservation laws were needed to protect the nearly 3000 endangered species.

- © Fairfax NZ News