Nevis skink

Oligosoma toka

At Risk - Declining

The Nevis skink Oligosoma toka is a graceful little lizard found only in the high-country of western Otago and South Canterbury.

Quick Facts:

• Body length (snout-to-vent) up to 71 mm.
• With their brown backs and stripey sides, these modest lizards vaguely resemble practically every other small brown skink in Otago, but can be distinguished by the presence of three supraocular scales above each eye (vs. four scales in most of the other skinks they coexist with).
• Unsurprisingly, the Nevis skink was named after its type locality in the Nevis Valley. Its species name, “toka”, means “rock” in te reo Māori.
• These skinks love the sun and can often be seen scampering about rocky alpine shrublands on a sunny day. They are also partial to a pile of old gold tailings.

Protecting the Nevis skink means preserving their habitats (including gold tailings!) and supressing exotic mammalian predators. In 2023, we located a new population of this species high in the mountains of the Pisa Range.

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