Adelaide pygmy blue-tongue skink
| Adelaide pygmy blue-tongue skink | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Family: | Scincidae |
| Genus: | Tiliqua |
| Species: | T. adelaidensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Tiliqua adelaidensis (Peters, 1863) | |
The Adelaide pygmy blue-tongue skink or pygmy bluetongue (Tiliqua adelaidensis) is a species of skink in the Scincidae family. Found only in the Mid North of South Australia, it was for a time believed to be extinct. It was rediscovered in 1992, when a researcher found the remains of an adult male lizard in the stomach contents of a dead brown snake, near Burra.[1]
The habitat and range of pygmy bluetongues is very restricted, as individuals live in old spider burrows within areas of unploughed native grasslands, which have become rare due to extensive development of cereal cropping throughout the region. Since their rediscovery, surveys have estimated that 5,000 to 7,000 individuals live in scattered areas between Kapunda and Peterborough.[2][3]
Conservation efforts to maintain the species include the establishment of the Tiliqua Pygmy Bluetongue Reserve near Burra, by the Nature Foundation SA in 2010.[1][4]
In February 2016 Zoos SA announced the first success of a captive breeding program of pygmy bluetongues at Monarto Zoo.[2]
Contributing factors to the risk of extinction
There are many threats to the pygmy blue tongue lizard. One of the threats is getting ripped up by tractor/lawn mower, since they live in old spider burrows. Another is when they go to live in unstable holes and they collapse on the lizard. Another threat is that there are several weeds from different countries that are poisonous to them. And the final one is changes of their habitats.
It is unknown precisely how many pygmy blue tongue lizards remain, but it may be around 5,500.
References
- 1 2 Pygmy bluetongue lizard rediscovered in Mid-North South Australia, The Advertiser, 3 November 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- 1 2 Pygmy blue-tongue lizards, once thought extinct, bred in SA's Monarto Zoo, ABC News, 24 February 2016, Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ↑ Conservationists hope to breed threatened pygmy blue-tongue lizard in captivity in SA ABC News, 4 October 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- ↑ Tiliqua A Pygmy Bluetongue Reserve Nature Foundation SA. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- Australasian Reptile & Amphibian Specialist Group (1996). Tiliqua adelaidensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- "Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard, Tiliqua adelaidensis" (PDF). Government of South Australia-Department for Environment and Heritage. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2014.