What do they look like? The yakka skink is a robust lizard around the same size as a blue tongue lizard. The average size from head to tail tip is 40cm, making it one of the largest skinks in the region. Its body colour ranges from pale to dark brown, usually with a broad dark brown stripe extending along the back from the neck to the tail. This dark stripe is bordered on either side by a narrow, pale fawn stripe. Some of the scales at the rear of its head are fragmented, so it lacks the symmetrical arrangement of other skinks. There are several large, plate- like scales along the leading edge of the ear, partly concealing the opening.

Where do they live? Introduction The core of the yakka skink’s distribution is within the Mulga Lands and Brigalow Conservation status The Brigalow Belt bioregion is Belt South bioregions. Other populations Australian Government: a large and complex area covering are scattered throughout the Brigalow 36,400,000ha that has been identified vulnerable Belt North (east to the Rockhampton as a biodiversity hotspot by the Environment Protection and area) and Einasleigh Uplands bioregions, Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Australian Government. It has been extending northwards to southern recognised for its biodiversity values Cape York Peninsula. Recent surveys Queensland: and the existing levels of threat to vulnerable have detected populations along the those values. It is home to a dazzling Queensland/New South Wales border. Nature Conservation Act 1992 array of distinctive flora and fauna, including the yakka skink. Yakka skinks occur in a wide variety of vegetation types including poplar Did you know? box, ironbark, brigalow, white cypress The yakka skink is an extremely pine, mulga, bendee and lancewood secretive species, hiding under rocks, woodlands and open forests. Substrates in hollow logs or ground vegetation, include rock, sand, clay and loamy red or in burrow systems. Its presence is earth. They can persist in clearings where often indicated by a pile of droppings shelter sites such as tunnel erosion, Image credit: www.hermonslade.org.au near shelter sites. rabbit warrens and log piles exist.

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Tasmanian tiger Pig-footed bandicoot Carnaby’s black-cockatoo Gilbert’s potoroo Flatback turtle What’s going to be EXTINCT EXTINCT endangered critically endangered vulnerable next...? Yakka skink life history & ecology Ripping of rabbit warrens What you can do The yakka skink is active during cooler The practice of ripping rabbit warrens • Maintain large, healthy, connected parts of the day, dusk and sometimes is known to kill yakka skinks as well as patches of suitable habitat – for at night. Individuals dig a deep burrow other species like woma pythons, and example poplar box, ironbark, system under and between partly also destroys important shelter sites. brigalow and mulga woodlands. buried rocks or logs, or into old root tracts at the base of remnant stumps. Feral animals • Retain fallen timber and ground cover They may also utilise old rabbit The yakka skink is vulnerable to as these provide essential habitat. warrens, deep gullies, tunnel erosion/ predation by foxes and feral cats. • Implement coordinated feral animal sinkholes or under rural buildings. control measures. Case Study – A botanic refuge The yakka skink is omnivorous, • Survey roadsides before undertaking consuming soft plant materials The Myall Park Botanic Gardens, road widening or maintenance and fruits and a wide variety of maintained by volunteers and a operations. Flag and protect suitable invertebrates (beetles, grasshoppers, caretaker, is a safe haven for the habitat and burrows if found. spiders) that venture into or near the threatened yakka skink. In 2007 the burrow entrance. It produces live gardens applied for a TSN Community • Avoid disturbance of colonies by young, with around six per litter. Grant to help protect the skink ensuring grazing practices are and many other species from feral sustainable, maintaining good Threats to the yakka skink predators and grazing animals, which ground cover or restricting grazing degrade the habitat. by fencing if necessary. Loss of habitat due to clearing and thinning The yakka skink is the flagship animal • If burning, use cool burns in a mosaic pattern that promote patchiness and The focus of vegetation clearing in for the local town and the Gardens are leave areas of ground cover unburnt. the Brigalow Belt is shifting from the vital for its survival. essentially cleared Brigalow ecosystems The project has two aims. Firstly, to • Consider entering into a conservation on fertile soils to the eucalypt woodlands reduce the number of grazing animals, agreement for conservation and land on poorer soils. Consequently the such as rabbits and kangaroos, management assistance. survival of dry woodland/open forest so habitat isn’t degraded further. • Report sightings to the TSN. Taking species with limited geographic ranges Secondly, to reduce foxes and cats, a photo of live or dead specimens and/or specialised habitat requirements, which prey on vulnerable reptiles like is useful to help identification. such as the yakka skink, remains the yakka skink and birds that use uncertain unless conservation action the gardens. • Help the yakka skink by reporting is undertaken. any activities that you see that Important areas of high biodiversity are likely to harm them or their Inappropriate roadside management value within the Gardens have been habitat to the Department of the Roadsides and road reserves often enclosed with a mesh fence to protect Environment, Water, Heritage provide suitable reptile habitat. habitat. A floppy type of mesh is being and the Arts – Compliance Populations of reptiles that live within trialled to see if it can keep grazing and Enforcement Branch. Visit linear remnants, such as roadside and predatory animals out without www.environment.gov.au/epbc/ strips, are particularly vulnerable to restricting the movement in and out for compliance/index.html or freecall disturbances that remove essential smaller animals such as other reptiles. 1800 110 395 for more information. microhabitat features, for example, Community members are helping the rocks, logs, dense leaf litter and fallen conservation of the yakka skink by bark. Road widening and maintenance taking part in the fox and cat trapping. Contacts works may also impact on yakka skink Workshops have been held to train TSN Coordinator: Eastern populations by destroying burrows. community members in the safe use Temperate Forests WWF-Australia of the traps. This will hopefully lead to Removal of wood debris and rocks a gradual reduction in the numbers of P 1800 032 551 This species is threatened by the feral cats and foxes in the local area. E [email protected] removal of its microhabitat, which W www.wwf.org.au/tsn includes partly buried rocks, fallen logs and leaf litter.

Reference Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland), www.epa.qld.gov.au/nature_conservation/wildlife/az_of_animals/yakka_skink/. Richardson, R. (In prep). Draft National recovery plan for Queensland Brigalow Belt Reptiles. Report to the Department of the Environment and Water Resources, Canberra. WWF – Australia.