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Wild Island Reptiles The ESA Bulletin VOLUME 49, ISSUE 4 DECEMBER 2019 CONTENTS Beyond captivity for 1 Beyond captivity for two extinct-in-the- two extinct-in-the- wild island reptiles. wild island reptiles By Jon-Paul Emery. Assessing reptile 3 Jon-Paul Emery In 2009 and 2010, Parks Australia in partnership health on Christmas Threatened Species Recovery Hub & University with Perth Zoo and Taronga Zoo collected 66 Island. of Western Australia blue-tailed skinks (Cryptoblepharus egeriae) and By Jessica Agius. 43 Lister’s geckos (Lepidodactylus listeri) from n 2009, the Christmas Island blue-tailed skink the rapidly dwindling wild populations to The ups and downs of 4 and Lister’s gecko were headed for imminent remote island field- establish captive breeding programs on extinction. Parks Australia acted quickly to work. I Christmas Island and at Taronga Zoo. The blue- collect remaining wild individuals in order to By Rosemary Steinberg, tailed skink was last seen in the wild in 2010 and establish captive breeding programs on Christmas Jessica Bergman & Tess Lister’s gecko in 2012, and both are presumed Island and at Taronga Zoo, Sydney. These Moriarty extinct in the wild. Efforts came too late for the programs have been highly successful. The Christmas Island forest skink (now extinct) and Australia’s sub- 6 Threatened Species Recovery (TSR) Hub is the coastal skink (extirpated from Christmas Antarctic islands: Gifts working closely with Parks Australia to help to test ecological Island). secure a future for the two lizards beyond theory and inspire the captivity. Captive breeding for the blue-tailed skink and world. Lister’s gecko has been very successful with By Steven L Chown & Until relatively recently the Australian external over 1,700 blue-tailed skinks and 1000 Lister’s Laura Phillips territory of Christmas Island, which lies 1,550 km geckos now in captivity. However captive Exploring a temperate 8 off the north-western coast of mainland Australia, populations are a resource intensive and rainforest inhabited contained a distinct reptile fauna, comprising one suboptimal option for the long-term conservation island. endemic blind snake, two endemic geckos, two of both species and Parks Australia is By Baptiste Wijas endemic skinks, and one native skink that also ESA 2019: Giving 10 occurs elsewhere. Science a compelling voice. The endemic species By Meena S. Sritharan comprise several million years of Desert field work: 12 evolutionary why I love it. isolation. All the By Charlotte Mills lizards remained Working up the 14 common up to the mountain: Alpine 1970s, but four then fieldwork in all sea- declined sons. precipitously. These By Casey M Kirchhoff declines were Communicating eco- 15 probably caused by logical challenges to the inadvertent children through introduction of the books – Bird migra- Asian wolf snake tion. (Lycodon capucinus) By Samantha Lloyd from stowaways on Populations of the Blue-tailed skink, endemic to Christmas Island, are dwindling freight shipping. rapidly. Captive breeding and reintroduction trials are helping to save this spe- cies. Credit: Jon-Paul Emery. P a g e 2 investigating other complementary conservation options. Trial reintroduction The first of these explorations was trialling a soft release of blue-tailed skinks in a semi-wild enclosure on Christmas Island. The 2,600 m2 enclosure is surrounded by a 1 m-high barrier designed to exclude potential introduced predators such as wolf snakes, black rats and giant centipedes. In April 2017, Parks Australia released 139 blue-tailed skinks into the exclosure and TSR Hub PhD candidate Jon-Paul Emery, from the University of Western Jon-Paul Emery at the second trial site, where 170 Blue-tail Skinks were released into Australia, monitored the new exclosures on Christmas Island. Credit: Leonie Valentine. population. climbing ability of these geckoes presents more of a Jon-Paul recorded a gradual decline in numbers, and by challenge to contain them within the enclosure, and we September 2017 none were detected. Further investigation suspect that many dispersed from it. indicated that the decline may have been due to predation by giant centipedes. Efforts had been made to remove them Gifted a tropical island prior to release, but some were still present. Centipedes A new stage of recovery action for the blue-tailed skink is had not previously been considered a primary threat to the underway. In September 2019, Parks Australia, supported skinks as they had been on Christmas Island for nearly 80 by the Shire and community of the Cocos (Keeling) years prior to the rapid decline. Islands, introduced 300 skinks to the tiny uninhabited Jon-Paul undertook an experiment exposing skinks in island of Pulu Blan (2 ha) in the Cocos (Keeling) Island smaller enclosures to a density of centipedes that matched group. This island was selected because it had no native that of the exclosure for three months and found that it reptile species and no populations of the wolf snake. reduced the survival of the skinks by over 30%. Christmas The release followed successful rat eradication on the Island National Park staff consequently made great efforts island by Parks Australia. TSR Hub Masters student to eradicate centipedes from the reintroduction site, in Kristen Schubert, from the University of Western preparation for another trial. Parks staff and Jon-Paul also Australia, is monitoring the released animals and has found added an estimated 20 tonnes of logs and branches, 10 that survival of blue-tailed skinks three-month post release tonnes of rock, ceramic tiles and wooden pallets to the site, is high and skinks have been observed mating. Future work to improve habitat suitability. will also examine the extent of predation on the lizards by Second trial birds (reef egrets, night herons and white-breasted water hen). The second trial saw 170 skinks released to the same site in early August 2018. Fifteen months later, in November A second release to another island in the Cocos group, 2019, the populations has increased to an estimated 550 Pulu Kembang (3.4 ha), is planned for March 2020. individuals. Based on this success a second larger This Threatened Species Recovery Hub project is enclosure is being established and a further 300 blue-tailed supported by the Australian Government’s National skinks are planned to be released into it in March 2020. Environmental Science Program. In February 2019, 160 Lister’s Geckos were also released For further information, contact Jon-Paul Emery here: to the site. Monitoring indicates that by Dec 2019 the [email protected]. ¤ population had contracted to fewer than 40 adults, but site- born juvenile geckos have also been observed. The The ESA Bulletin P a g e 3 Assessing reptile health on Christmas Island Jessica Agius The parasites Threatened Species Recovery Hub & The University of Sydney During the health assessment several internal and external parasites were found: mites, tapeworms, lungworms, nfectious diseases are an increasing threat to wildlife roundworms, flukes and coccidia. Infestation by parasites populations worldwide, and have been associated with can cause damage to the reptiles’ internal organs, I species declines and extinctions, particularly on increasing their susceptibility to disease and, in some islands. In 2014, a novel Enterococcus bacterium was cases, cause death. discovered in the captive breeding population of Lister’s geckos (Lepidodactylus listeri) and blue-tailed skinks Reptiles from the Cocos islands and Christmas Island are (Cryptoblepharus egeriae) on Christmas Island and equally affected by parasites, so understanding them will resulted in the deaths of over 50 individuals. be valuable to managing populations on both Christmas Island and the Cocos islands. This outbreak prompted a more in-depth health analysis of What’s next for Christmas Island reptiles? Christmas Island reptiles, which was undertaken by Threatened Species Recovery Hub PhD candidate Jessica The reintroduction of blue-tailed skinks into a Christmas Agius, from The University of Sydney. The assessment Island exclosure has been successful to date, and continued additionally discovered two papillomaviruses and several monitoring will help us to evaluate longer-term success. parasites in both invasive and endemic geckos. Although initial results are promising for the translocation of The bacterium skinks to Pulu Blan, more monitoring is needed to assess the longer-term fate of that trial. The Enterococcus bacterium The disease research will results in inevitable death of “ Reptiles from the Cocos islands infected animals. Screening now attempt to understand has revealed that introduced and Christmas Island are equally more about the genome of geckos on the Cocos affected by parasites, so the Enterococcus bacterium, (Keeling) islands, the site of understanding them will be its resistance to antibiotics, the recent skink introduction, valuable to managing and the most effective are not affected. Antibiotics populations...” antibiotic treatments. have been trialled on Asian We will also continue our house geckos on Christmas investigation into the impact of introduced species on the Island to see whether Parks Australia could treat infected Lister’s gecko and blue-tailed skink, which stand as animals, and while some promising results were achieved, fascinating examples of millions of years of reptile those results also suggested the bacterium may be highly evolution in the isolation of Christmas Island. resistant to antibiotics. This
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