herpetofauna

Little is known about the impacts of fire on New Zealand’s lizard fauna. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the direct impact of fire and subsequent loss of habitat are drastically negative for arboreal and grassland species. The impact of fire on saxicolous (ground-dwelling) species is less understood and difficult to presume given we understand little about the protective nature of rocky refugia and species’ reliance on fire-susceptible habitat.

New Zealand’s mountainous environments support unique flora and fauna specially adapted to the extreme cold and harsh conditions of the alpine zone. The orange-spotted gecko (Mokopirirakau “Roys Peak”) is a rare undescribed gecko that is currently known only from the alpine zone of Otago. The species was discovered in 1998 and is only known from the Central Otago and Queenstown-Lakes districts, with populations spanning a ~3000 km2 area.

The distribution and abundance of lizards relative to habitat structure were studied at Pukerua Bay, Wellington between December 1982 and March 1988 in order to identify options for management of the habitat of the five species of lizards present. One species, Whitaker's skink (Cyclodina whitakeri), is a threatened species with only one known mainland population. Pitfall traps were set for 23 667 trap-days and yielded 2897 lizard captures. Highest capture rate was for common skinks (Oligosoma nigriplantare polychroma) and lowest rate was for C. whitakeri.