New reserve for Kapitia skinks
Hokitika – A hundred special skinks now have a safe new home with the establishment of a predator free kapitia scientific reserve near Hokitika.
The kapitia skinks, found only in a one kilometre coastal strip near Hokitika, were badly impacted by Cyclone Fehi in 2018 with 50 skinks taken in by Auckland Zoo at the time.
The skinks have a salmon-coloured prehensile tail which they use to grip objects and help them climb. Researchers think they were adapted to climbing trees.
Department of Conservation (DOC) Hokitika o manager Owen Kilgour says 42 of the skinks now in the reserve travelled back this week from their temporary home at Auckland Zoo.
Cyclone Fehi devastated 40 percent of their habitat in 2018 and it’s likely many skinks were displaced or killed.
There are fewer than 300 kapitia skinks remaining in the wild. As well as threats to their habitat from storm damage, they’re vulnerable to predators such as mice, which attack them if they are too cold to move and they eat them alive.
The scientific reserve is a 1.3ha piece of land within the range of the Kapitia skinks. There is a 1.8m high predator proof fence around it and the adjacent small piece of road reserve. The reserve was declared predator free in late October.
Ngāti Waewae and local landowners supported the project along with the and Westland District Council, which allowed the road reserve to be used.
Kapitia skinks were formerly known as Chesterfield skinks, referring to the locality in which they were found. Māori know the area as Kapitia and in November 2020 the skinks were named the kapitia skink.
