Aja Pendergrast, Auckland Zoo
Why were we searching through this rugged New Zealand landscape? For precious and endangered skinks of course!
Earlier this year, our ectotherm team leader Dave Laux journeyed to the beautiful Te Rua-o-te-moko/Fiordland on a mission to locate more elusive awakōpaka skinks.
This was the second time we’ve ventured here, in a collaborative effort with the Department of Conservation and Ngāi Tahu, to help safeguard these endemic lizards, which are currently known only from this one tiny location.
In late 2023, five of these ‘Nationally Critical’ skinks were urgently translocated to the Zoo, as a predicted beech mast (seeding event) threatened to increase invasive predators in the area. Mice and rats are omnivores and eat a wide diet, including lizards – and only about 20 individual awakōpaka skinks have ever been recorded so their numbers are likely dangerously low.
Dave was joined by other herpetologists tasked with finding awakōpaka females, to pair with the males found in the previous trip and now safely housed in a special facility at the Zoo. At the end of a week-long search, and after checking more than 150 lizard traps every day, a single female was found and carefully transported to the Zoo.
You can learn more of this incredible story in last week’s episode of Wild Heroes! Watch on ThreeNow.
