Bojers Skink
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Bojers Skink ( Gongylomorphus bojerii ) |
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| Gongylomorphus bojerii | ||||||||||||
| ( Desjardins , 1831) |
Bojers Skink ( Gongylomorphus bojerii ) is a rare skink-kart found on Mauritius, Round Island and some other coastal islands. The type epithet honors the Bohemian-Mauritian naturalist and botanist Wenceslas Bojer .
features
Bojers Skink reaches a total length of 110 millimeters; of this, the head is 11 millimeters, the body 39 millimeters and the tail 60 millimeters. The length of the front limbs is 12 millimeters and that of the rear limbs is 18 millimeters. The legs are well developed. The front and rear feet each have five toes.
The muzzle is blunt and barely protrudes over the edge of the lip shield. The eyes are moderate. The lower eyelid has an undivided transparent disc. The slit of the eye opening is horizontal.
The top is bronze olive. The back is either plain or has small black spots. A black side line can often be seen. On the back there is a light stripe that begins at the canthus rostralis . The sides are marbled black or black. The underside is whitish. The throat is usually greenish.
Scaling
The upper nose shields form a central seam. There is a nasal shield between the upper nose shields and the first lip shield. The forehead shield is more than twice as long as the forehead-nose intermediate shield, which is outlined on each side of the first over-eye shield. There are two widely spaced forehead shields. The number of over-eye shields is four; the number of eyebrow shields six or seven. The intermediate crown shield is slightly wider than the crown shield, but narrower than the frontal shield. The upper edge of the fifth upper lip shield touches the eye. 38 rows of scales run around the middle of the body.
distribution
Bojers skink inhabits the Mauritius islands Îlot Vacoas, Round Iceland , Iceland Serpent, Ilot Gabriel, Pigeon Rock Flat Iceland, Gunner's Quoin, Ile aux Aigrettes and the Ile de la Passe. He was released into the wild in the Black River Gorges National Park in Mauritius.
status
Especially mongooses , wolf tooth snakes , and musk shrews have contributed to the decline in the Bojers Skink. Thanks to the efforts of the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation , the invasive predators have been eliminated from the former habitats of Gongylomorphus bojerii . In addition, the Gerald Durrell Endemic Wildlife Sanctuary was established in the Black River Gorges National Park on the mainland of Mauritius , where conservation breeding and reintroduction programs have increased the number of skinks.
literature
- Anthony Cheke & Julian Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo , T. & AD Poyser, 2008, ISBN 0-7136-6544-0 .
- George Albert Boulenger : Catalog of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural Edition). 2nd Edition. Volume III. Lactertidae, Gerrosauridae, Scincidae, Anelytropidae, Diramidae, Chamaeleontidae . London. Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1887.
- Allen E. Greer: The Systematics and Evolution of the Subsaharan Africa, Seychelles, and Mauritius Scincine Scincid Lizards In: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Issue 140, number 1. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970.