Zoo returns rare skinks

Auckland Zoo is releasing more than 40 critically endangered native skinks back to their original habitat in the South Island.

The kapitia skink is one of 130 species of native skinks and has been on the critically endangered list ever since a small population of 100-200 was discovered in 1992.

Their situation became even more precarious after ex-Cyclone Fehi ripped through the

West Coast in

2018, destroying

40 per cent of their habitat. It was then the

Department of Conservation called in Auckland

Zoo to save and care for the skinks.

‘‘Being able to send these skinks back to their natural range is a big success, a big breakthrough,’’ said Auckland Zoo’s head of animal care and conservation, Richard Gibson.

DOC estimates up to half of the skink population was displaced or killed during the storm in 2018.

Gibson said that even before the storm, the skinks were ‘‘ridiculously threatened’’ by predators such as mice, cats, hedgehogs, rats, stoats, weasels and weka.

The zoo received 50 skinks from the edge of a beach in Hokitika.

Since 2018, Gibson said, the zoo has had ‘‘great success’’ in growing the skink population and taking care of them, to the point that 42 can now be released into the wild.

The breeding programme saw the 50 rescued skinks increase to 65-70.