Critically Endangered
Oligosoma infrapunctatum
Oligosoma infrapunctatum
Oligosoma infrapunctatum is a skink in the family Scincidae, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to New Zealand.
The skink
Oligosoma infrapunctatum is a skink in the family Scincidae.
Range and habitat
Oligosoma infrapunctatum is a widespread but patchily distributed skink with a distribution spanning the North Island from the Bay of Plenty south, and the South Island in the Marlborough Sounds, Nelson and Westland regions. It occurs in open forest, scrubland and tussock grassland from sea level to the subalpine zone, on boulder beaches in the Westland region of the South Island and occasionally in farmland and other modified habitats. It is endemic to New Zealand.
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
The speckled skink is classified under the New Zealand Threat Classification System as being in 'gradual decline'. Even so, evidence indicates that this classification refers to a complex of closely related species, and the actual O. Infrapunctatum may be highly endangered or even extinct.
Oligosoma infrapunctatum 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 infrapunctatum, Wikidata item Q2704370. 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.
