MEDIA RELEASE
28 October, 1999
OTAGO AND GRAND SKINK HABITAT PROTECTED
Conservation Minister, Nick Smith today announced the protection of the habitat containing the largest surviving
population of both the Otago and grand skinks in a major land swap deal.
"This is a crucial breakthrough in the plan to save two of New Zealand's rarest and biggest native lizards. These skinks
are in the top rank of threatened species. Their range has contracted drastically from being common across the whole of
Otago around the turn of the century. They are now found in two main locations of only a few square kilometres in
extent, near Macraes and the Lindis Pass."
The skinks grow to between 250-300 mm in length and can weigh up to 35 grams. They are different in appearance and
prefer different aspects of their habitat. The Otago skink is heavy-bodied, and prefers to live on rock tors in
sheltered gullies or streamsides. The grand skink is slim and prefers to live on tors on ridge tops. The ecology of the
skinks is still being understood and research is underway. For skinks, they appear to be particularly well adapted to
the harsh winter conditions of Central Otago. They shelter in deep crevices in the schist tors and emerge to bask and
feed when the sun is shining, even if there is snow and ice on the ground. The principal factors in their decline are
habitat loss and predation. They are thought to need intact tussock grassland-shrubland between tors for feeding and
dispersal cover.
"These animals do not just need habitat protection. They need active management and research, including predator
control. In an intensive period of trapping my department has taken over 60 wild cats and a number of ferrets out of the
Macraes habitat in a three month period over the winter. Gut samples show that many of the cats had been feeding on
lizards, mainly common skinks which are abundant in this centre of lizard biodiversity."
Dr Smith also paid tribute to the land-owners involved in the protection deal. "I am told that Keith and Margaret Philip
have strongly supported the department's work over the period that the land swap negotiations have taken place. Good
relations between my department and their neighbours will continue to be important, as the skink habitat is an island of
tussock grassland in a sea of developed farmland."
ENDS