<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/29/skink-endangered-alpine-lizard-numbers-alpine-national-park-victoria>
"Eleven endangered skinks released into a gated community in Victoria’s Alpine
national park could soon become 13, with a female known as Omeo due to give
birth in March.
One of Australia’s only alpine lizards, guthega skinks live on “sky islands”
above 1,600 metres in two isolated alpine locations – the Bogong high plains in
Victoria and Mount Kosciuszko in New South Wales.
“They’re extremely vulnerable, given where they live,” said skink specialist Dr
Zak Atkins, the director of Snowline Ecology.
As the climate warms, their alpine zone has been retracting, and there is
nowhere higher for them to go. More frequent bushfires pose an additional
threat to their survival, with multiple colonies lost in the 2003 fires.
A captive breeding program by Zoos Victoria has culminated in the release of
the lizards to a specially designed enclosure furnished with granite rocks and
hundreds of plants, including alpine mint bush and snow beard-heath, the
skink’s favourite food.
In December, seven skinks joined an initial cohort of four. All have survived,
with the imminent arrival of babies a huge milestone.
“It’s going awesome,” Atkins said. “It just looks like a normal functioning
wild colony, which is exactly what we wanted.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
