By Brendan Casey
MOST days I walk along an Inverloch path where I can look down at Swamp Skinks basking outside their grassy burrows. Sometimes they tilt their little heads and look up at me.
This path was extended and repaired as part of a housing estate, enabling the local community and visitors to walk through and observe the wonders of a fragile intertidal ecosystem.
It also exposed an extant population of a now very rare lizard that was until recently hidden from people.
MOST days I walk along an Inverloch path where I can look down at Swamp Skinks basking outside their grassy burrows. Sometimes they tilt their little heads and look up at me.
This path was extended and repaired as part of a housing estate, enabling the local community and visitors to walk through and observe the wonders of a fragile intertidal ecosystem.
It also exposed an extant population of a now very rare lizard that was until recently hidden from people.
In March 2023 the Eastern Mourning Skink, aka Lissolepis coventryi or Swamp Skink, was listed as ‘Endangered’ under the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, mainly because across their entire distribution range their habitat is almost all gone.
Six months later, I noticed a small lizard disappear off the edge of the path at Inverloch. Initially I thought nothing of it. It bothered me, though; this lizard was much larger than the skink species I have learned to identify on my daily walk. I wondered if it might be a Swamp Skink but I thought there was no way an undocumented population could persist in Inverloch.
With the help of volunteers from the South Gippsland Conservation Society, we placed a terra-cotta roof tile near where the skink was observed, and a game-trail automated camera pointed at the roof tile. The roof tile was intended to be a ‘stage’ for the camera.
When the data card from the camera was retrieved I was astounded to see dozens of images capturing lizards that were identified as Swamp Skinks. Careful observations of the Swamp Skinks at Inverloch have revealed at least five individuals: a juvenile, gravid females and, on a sequence of camera images, a couple mating, confirming the location as a breeding site.
Six months later, I noticed a small lizard disappear off the edge of the path at Inverloch. Initially I thought nothing of it. It bothered me, though; this lizard was much larger than the skink species I have learned to identify on my daily walk. I wondered if it might be a Swamp Skink but I thought there was no way an undocumented population could persist in Inverloch.
With the help of volunteers from the South Gippsland Conservation Society, we placed a terra-cotta roof tile near where the skink was observed, and a game-trail automated camera pointed at the roof tile. The roof tile was intended to be a ‘stage’ for the camera.
When the data card from the camera was retrieved I was astounded to see dozens of images capturing lizards that were identified as Swamp Skinks. Careful observations of the Swamp Skinks at Inverloch have revealed at least five individuals: a juvenile, gravid females and, on a sequence of camera images, a couple mating, confirming the location as a breeding site.
For the first time in their existence, the Swamp Skinks of Inverloch are experiencing
humans in their habitat. Photos: Rodney Webster
humans in their habitat. Photos: Rodney Webster
When conditions are right, the Eastern Mourning Skinks can be seen basking or moving along the shallow burrows they build around the grass tussocks.
Within the habitat of the Swamp Skinks of Inverloch are at least four other skink species: Metallic Cool-skink, Blotched Blue-tongue, Golden Water Skink and Glossy Grass Skink. The Glossy Grass Skink is also endangered; their habitat is similar to the Swamp Skink.
This habitat comprises two threatened plant communities: natural damp grassland of the Victorian coastal plains, and assemblages of species associated with open-coast salt-wedge estuaries of western and central Victoria ecological communities. The size of the Swamp Skink population at Inverloch is unknown, as is the range of their habitat.
In some places, new houses have been built literally right on top of their habitat. Increasing numbers of people are coming into direct contact with them. For the first time in their existence, this population is experiencing humans, ready or not.
There is every chance it will end badly for the Swamp Skinks. Small changes to the environment could quickly expose this ancient population to conditions they cannot survive. For example, a king tide might flush out individual skinks into people’s fences and yards or on to new roads where last season there were dry, grassy mounds.
I hope things go well for the Swamp Skinks and Glossy Grass Skinks of Inverloch but the trend for these species is a downward trajectory once humans enter their habitat. The next step is listing them as ‘critically endangered’, meaning captive populations will be required to prevent extinction.
If the Swamp Skinks of Inverloch disappear, as has happened to most of the known populations, it will be a silent event and unwitnessed.
There is no targeted management plan or habitat protection in place to support them. Above everything else, to persist the Swamp Skinks of Inverloch need to have their habitat protected. Maybe then they can coexist with humans. We are about to find out.