Critically Endangered
Sinbad skink
Oligosoma pikitanga
The Sinbad skink is a rare species of medium-sized skink endemic to New Zealand where it lives in an alpine habitat in Sinbad Gully, in Fiordland National Park.
Appearance
The toes and tail are very long and the upper surface colouration is black on the back with prominent green speckles, varying to predominantly green with black mottling. The sides are black and spotted irregularly with pink or grey and the belly is a vivid orange colour. The elongate body shape and relatively high scale counts suggest a saxicolous (rock dwelling) existence similar to that seen in closely related species with similar features such as the grand skink and scree skink.
The Sinbad skink is a medium to large sized skink and may grow to an SVL of 91mm with a total length of up to 200mm.
Range and habitat
It is one of two species of New Zealand skink found in the Fiordland region of the South Island that lives exclusively in the alpine zone, the other being the closely related and morphologically similar Barrier skink, Oligosoma judgei. The specific epithet pikitanga is a Māori-language word meaning "mountain climber", and is a reference to the vertiginous alpine habitat of the species. The Sinbad skink is a rare species of medium-sized skink endemic to New Zealand where it lives in an alpine habitat in Sinbad Gully, in Fiordland National Park.
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
As of 2012 this species was classified as Nationally Endangered under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.
Sinbad skink 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 Sinbad skink, Wikidata item Q3350593. 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.
