Rare skinks thriving in Alexandra basin

Endangered lizards reintroduced to the Alexandra basin last year are thriving and the conservationists behind the project are thrilled.

In November 12 captive-bred Otago skinks were released into the predator-proof Mokomoko dryland sanctuary in the Aldinga Conservation Area near Alexandra.

The 200 square metre enclosure is ringed by a 2m-high stainless steel mesh fence, which protects a lizard-friendly schist rock and scrub habitat.

The Central Otago Ecological Trust in partnership with the Department of Conservation spent four years on the project.

Trust chairman Grant Norbury yesterday said 11 of the 12 skinks had been photographed and appeared to be doing well. Photographing was a reliable way of tracking because each animal had a distinctive pattern.

The next step was to monitor the lizards during winter and hope breeding started by the spring, he said.

Trust members and volunteers fed the little lizards a mixture of mincemeat and pureed fruit but it appeared the group had adapted to catching insects and eating berries, he said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Conservation plans to move Otago skink and grand skink to Christchurch next month. Programme manager Andy Hutcheon said a few thousand of each species remained around Macrae's Flat and the Lindis area.

Eight will be moved to a captive-breeding enclosure in Peacock Springs.

Otago skink disappeared from the wild in the 1970s, largely because of predation by introduced mammals.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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