Image: Kapitia skink processing MRD 13

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Description: Lynn Adams, reptile specialist from the Department of Conservation, with a Kapitia skink (Oligosoma salmo), Hokitika, West Coast, New Zealand. The Kapitia or Chesterfield skink is a critically endangered lizard (numbering just a few hundred individuals) found along a narrow 1 km stretch of coastal vegetation north of Hokitika. DOC biodiversity officers regularly catch skinks, collect their tail tips for DNA recovery, measure, and photograph them. Individuals have unique scale patterns and can be matched against a book of photographs to be identified. Each skink is temporarily labelled with white paint and released again. Kapitia skinks have prehensile tails (seen in the skink Lynn is holding), suggesting their former habitat was coastal forest.
Title: Kapitia skink processing MRD 13
Credit: Own work
Author: Mike Dickison
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
License: CC BY 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes

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Oligosoma salmo

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