Environmental scientists are working alongside park rangers to protect Christmas Island's remaining reptilian wildlife from extinction. As five of the island's six native reptiles are threatened with extinction, researchers from the National Environmental Research Program's Environmental Decisions Hub (NERP's EDH) are investigating how the last species in the wild – the giant gecko – is managing to evade the same fate. The evidence they gather will be used to protect the giant geckos as well as the critically endangered blue-tailed skinks and Lister's geckos from feral cats, rats, yellow crazy ants, wolf snakes and centipedes, says lead researcher Ms Melissa Wynn of NERP EDH and The Australian National University (ANU). "Four species of mammals appear to have perished since human settlement, and the island has had a catastrophic decline in reptile numbers," says Ms Wynn. "The forest skink, blind-snake and coastal skink may already be extinct, and the Lister's gecko and blue-tailed skink are now in captive breeding programs. "The giant gecko – the sixth species – was also thought to have declined by 30 per cent up to 2008 according to earlier surveys. Taken together, the island presents one of the largest reptile extinction problems that Australia has ever faced."
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-11-christmas-island-reptiles.html#jCp
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