Lizard lodges for Quail Island
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- Category: News
- Published on Saturday, 20 April 2013 20:28
- Written by Shaz Davis
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Common skink and geckos now have some additional "eco-safe housing" from one of the Trust's monitoring strategies. Lincoln University ecologist Mike Bowie and summer scholar Jenny Clarke put several lizard lodges on Quail Island to monitor distribution and numbers of skinks and geckos present. The lodges designed by lizard-loving researcher Marieke Lettink (studying lizard ecology on Kaitorete Spit), have proved to be sought after by the reptiles.
The refuges are made from two layers of onduline separated by 10mm dowel to allow the lizards to squeeze in while excluding the murderous molars of mice (and other introduced predators such as rats and hedgehogs). Onduline is a corrugated roofing material that absorbs the sun’s rays providing solar heating which lizards seek out to warm up their cold-blooded bodies.
Jenny also used tracking tunnels laced with a peanut butter bait to check the presence and absence of skinks and geckos over the island from their distinctive foot prints (see photo).
Previous lizard studies on Quail Island
Two other lizard studies have previously been undertaken on Quail Island.
Ian McIvor completed his M.Sc. at Canterbury University in 1970 studying the gecko on Quail Island. The photos in his thesis make interesting comparison to the landscape found today. The grass was grazed heavily creating a barren landscape compared to replanting visible today. He found 443 geckos in his study area (about one acre). The monitoring work beginning in November will enable the Trust to ascertain to what degree the predators are restricting populations on the island.
Kerri Lukas, a student from Lincoln University also completed a study in 1999. She found skinks to be very abundant, particularly in exotic grassland and around Muehlenbeckia complexa and Discaria toumatou. Geckos were not as abundant and restricted to only a few sites on the island.