Found Spotted Skink Threat category: At Risk

[soule]

Good day i have come across a article of a Spotted Skink Threat category: At Risk
and i know where quite a few are at a local dam that has a small mountain like surrounding.
what should i do report it or not and if so where do i report it
link to article https://rarespecies.nzfoa.org.nz/species/spotted-skink/

[Star3]

Maybe to either a federal or state wildlife agency?

[carrieseltzer]

Welcome, @soule! First, I moved this to the Nature Talk category since it sounds like your inquiry is beyond iNaturalist. I’m tagging in @jon_sullivan from iNaturalist.nz and @kiwifergus since he may have a quick response.

If you have photographic evidence of the skinks and want to share it on iNaturalist, then I suggest creating an account on iNaturalist.nz and adding an observation (or multiple if you’ve observed them on multiple days).

[kiwifergus]

The spotted skink is referred to as Oligosoma festivum in that webpage, but is now known as Oligosoma lineoocellatum

@soule If you are a member of the Forrest Owners Association, you can report the finding directly to them, or directly to your nearest DoC office. You can also create an iNat account (link is in Carrie’s post above) and post the observation directly to the iNat site. Ideally a photograph for the observation if possible, and if not you can upload a photoless observation and place the pin location where you found it. For the vulnerable skinks in NZ, iNat will obscure the location information, so even if you can see it the location won’t be available to others. I’m Up at Gisborne, a bit outside the known range for these and I certainly haven’t encountered them myself, but Jon is from nearer to their known range. He pops in from time to time so will likely respond as well.

Once you have your iNat account setup, you can reach out for any help you might need, by either using a tag (@ followed by my username eg @kiwifergus in any comment on an observation) or by direct message using iNat’s internal messaging system (the envelope in the top right of the iNat page).

[clay_s]

What is DoC? I don’t think you mean Department of Corrections. :)

[kaipatiki_naturewatc]

Department of Conservation

[jon_sullivan]

Thanks @soule

@kiwifergus has covered things well. It is important to report sightings of threatened species (especially if this is a population that isn’t know yet, or hasn’t been reported on in a long while).

iNaturalist automatically obscures the locations of threatened species vulnerable to poaching so it’s a good place to put your observations of spotted skinks. You can also report then directly to the Department of Conservation.

Cheers,
Jon