Critically Endangered
Oligosoma awakopaka
Oligosoma awakopaka
Oligosoma awakopaka is a skink in the family Scincidae, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to New Zealand.
Appearance
It can reach a snout-vent-length (SVL) of up to 77 mm and has a glossy, vibrant brown-yellow dorsal surface flecked with black, and typically sports a faint pale dorsolateral stripe edged with black. The ventral surface is vivid yellow and flecked with black as well (van Winkel et al., 2018. Jewell, 2008).
Range and habitat
Oligosoma awakopaka, the Awakopaka skink, is a rare species of skink (alpine lizard) found in New Zealand. It is presumed to be diurnal and terrestrial, and is only known to inhabit the alpine zone, where it lives among grasses, herbfield, and fellfield. The Awakōpaka skink is thought to be extremely rare and is currently only known from an area less than two hectares in size, although it is possible that the species can be found elsewhere in Fiordland National Park, waiting to be discovered (pers. Comm.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Most skinks forage in leaf litter or under cover. Burrowing species slip through sand or soil more than they climb.
In crisis
Oligosoma awakopaka is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Oligosoma awakopaka, Wikidata item Q47004256. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
