Telfair skink
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Telfair skink ( Leiolopisma telfairii ) |
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| Leiolopisma telfairii | ||||||||||||
| ( Desjardins , 1831) |
The Telfair skink ( Leiolopisma telfairii ) is a skinkart that occurs on Round Island , on the Île aux Aigrettes and on Gunner's Quoin near Mauritius. It belongs to a genus of skinks found mainly in New Caledonia and New Zealand ; but its closest relatives are the extinct taxa Leiolopisma mauritiana from Mauritius and Leiolopisma ceciliae from Réunion . The species is named after Charles Edward Telfair , the founder of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius .
description
The Telfair skink reaches a length of 30 to 40 centimeters. The long, almost cylindrical body is generally brownish-gray and often speckled with dark or brownish patches of skin. The tail, which is quite long and strong, is renewed when it is lost in a fight. The small scales have a rainbow-like shimmer in the sunlight. The Telfair Skink digs nests or protective caves with its relatively short but very strong legs.
Way of life
The Telfair skink is an omnivore whose diet consists of seeds, fruits, insects, young shrews and snakes, as well as small lizards. Cannibalism is not uncommon and it happens that the adult skinks eat their own young.
status
The Telfair skink used to be found on the mainland of Mauritius and on islands near the coast such as Flat Island. Since the middle of the 19th century it has only been found on Round Island. Rabbits and goats had severely affected the vegetation on Round Island, so in the mid-1970s the Mauritian government, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust decided to remove all goats and rabbits from the island. This program was successfully completed in 1987 with the poisoning of the last rabbits. Thanks to the protective measures, the population of the Telfair Skink recovered so well that in 2006 a population could be built on Gunner's Quoin and in 2007 on the Île aux Aigrettes . When Gerald Durrell visited Round Island between 1976 and 1977, there were between 4,500 and 5,000 specimens of the Telfair Skink on the island. Durrell brought some animals to the Jersey Zoo that formed the basis of successful breeding groups in North American and European zoos.
literature
- Anthony Cheke & Julian Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo T. & AD Poyser, 2008, ISBN 0-7136-6544-0 .
- JJ Austin & EN Arnold: Using ancient and recent DNA to explore relationships of extinct and endangered Leiolopisma skinks (Reptilia: Scincidae) in the Mascarene islands . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39 (2): 503-511. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.12.011 , 2006. (HTML abstract)
- Angelo P. Pernetta, Diana J. Bella and Carl G. Jones: Macro- and microhabitat use of Telfair's skink (Leiolopisma telfairii) on Round Island, Mauritius: implications for their translocation . Acta Oecologica, No. 28, Issue 3, pp. 313-323. doi : 10.1016 / j.actao.2005.06.001 , 11/2005. (HTML abstract)
Web links
- Leiolopisma telfairii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: Madagascar Reptile & Amphibian Specialist Group, 1996. Accessed on 24 February, 2009.
- ARKive - Photos and information on the Telfair skink ( Leiolopisma telfairii )
- Leiolopisma telfairii in The Reptile Database