13/08/2026
๐ฆ Live young, stunning camouflage, stealthy stillness ๐ฆ
Happy World Lizard Day - August 14th.
New Zealand has 149 species of gecko and skink. Geckos have loose, baggy skin and large, beautiful, unblinking eyes. Skinks can blink, and have small shining eyes and smooth skin.
Lizards are both predators and prey within Aotearoa ecosystems and are important pollinators and seed dispersers too.
Before the introduction of pest mammals, our lizards were mostly eaten by birds, tuatara, and other, bigger lizards. As these predators rely on sight to find their lizard prey, over evolutionary time, New Zealandโs native lizards became very good at hiding in plain sight.
Unlike many lizards overseas, our native lizards nearly all give birth to live young. Only one native lizard lays eggs โ the aptly named Egg-laying skink โ which only lives on a handful of offshore islands and on the east coast of the northern North Island.
Many of our lizards have very small, localised distributions and the species can be tricky to tell apart physically. This means that a decision was made early on to legally protect all of our native lizards under the Wildlife Act (1953). With only five of our currently 149 known lizard species not threatened, those that remain are critically important to our ecosystems. Because of this, a Wildlife Act Authorisation (WAA) is required before lizards, or their habitats, can be disturbed.
Unfortunately, unlike their natural predators, pest mammals like rats can use their sense of smell to easily locate and prey on our lizards. Hiding in plain sight and keeping still does little to protect you from a hungry, keen-nosed mammal.
To help protect our lizards, control of pest mammals is incredibly important, especially when translocating lizards into new areas as part of a lizard management plan, as is establishing new habitat for lizards following developments.
Please donโt hesitate to get in touch for your lizard ecological management needs and Happy .
Team Wildlands ๐ฆ.
โ๏ธ [email protected]
