Rainbow skink found

A DOC file photo

 More bad news. There has been the first positive identification of rainbow skinks in Mangaiti Gully. A dead one was found on the concrete path leading off Sexton Road into the gully. The injuries to the skink that would have caused its death were consistent to a cat bite. 

We have had reports in the past from residents of Millie Place, which is in the same area, of skinks that fitted the description of rainbows, but this is the first positive ID.

Rainbow skinks are a highly invasive Australian self-import. They reproduce by laying eggs, unlike our indigenous skinks that give birth to live offspring. This enables the rainbows to reproduce much more rapidly.  There is no known means of eradicating them once they are established without also eradicating our indigenous species. The copper skink being our local one.