Skinks facing extinction find new hope away from predatory snakes

A critically endangered species of blue-tailed skinks has been given a new opportunity to thrive after being relocated from Christmas Island to the remote Horsburgh Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, according to a story reporting on conservation efforts. The release of over 500 skinks onto Horsburgh Island, located about 2,900 kilometers northwest of Perth, came as part of a larger effort to bolster the population and eventually remove the species from the critically endangered list.

The South-east Asian wolf snake, introduced to Christmas Island as a predator, had decimated the lizard populations, leaving only one small population by 2009. The absence of the skinks was noticed by locals who used to see them frequently, describing them with their bright blue tails. Initial translocations to smaller neighboring islands in the Cocos (Keeling) archipelago were successful, with numbers swelling to around 400 and eventually reaching 5,000 on two of those islands.

The larger Horsburgh Island, 50 times the size of its predecessors, was chosen as the next translocation site due to its similar lack of predators and greater potential for supporting a larger population. If successful, the translocation could potentially result in hundreds of thousands of skinks flourishing in the wild. However, with the presence of the wolf snake on Christmas Island, releasing the skinks back onto the island in the near future is deemed unlikely due to the challenges of controlling the snake population.