New species discovered behind a pub –

then saved from extinction

In 2007, conservationists discovered a new species inhabiting a beach just behind a pub in
Granity, New Zealand. But could they save it before erosion and rising waters wiped it off
the face of the planet?

Discovered behind a pub, the cobble skink narrowly avoided extinction. Today, the entire
global population lives at the Auckland Zoo. This photo was taken to identify individuals
by the markings on the sides of their heads. Photograph: Auckland Zoo

Who says village life has to be boring? Granity, New Zealand may be home to less than
300 people, but this lovely seaside village on the western coast of South Island was also –
until last year – home to a species found no-where else on Earth. And today, the town has
quite the tale to tell.

In 2007 reptile expert Tony Jewell noticed there was something very different about the
little lizards that skittered beneath the cobble stones on the beach behind Miners on Sea pub
and hotel in Granity. Built in 1892, the pub has a long history of serving nearby mining
communities.

Jewell was so convinced of the reptile’s distinctness that he included them as a separate
species in his 2008 edition of A Photographic Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New
Zealand. Although similar to the more common speckled skink, these Miners-on-Sea
skinks were smaller and sported bigger eyes.

“Perhaps adaptations to wriggling through the gloomy spaces beneath the ‘cobble’,”
Richard Gibson, with the Auckland Zoo, explained.

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Conservationists began referring to this population as ‘cobble skinks,’ since they only
inhabited the cobble stones that lined the beach near Granity.

But things quickly became dire for the newly discovered skinks. Eight years after Jewell
discovered the population, two surveys, one in 2015 and 2016, counted only around 30
animals left.

The species’ habitat was rapidly disintegrating due to coastal erosion. In part, this was
because of changes inland where fewer rocks from the mountains were making their way to
the beaches of Granity. At the same time, rising sea levels and higher storm surges – caused
by climate change – may have also been washing cobble stones – and lizards – out to sea.

“Historically, when the skink’s habitat has been eroded they have been able to migrate
inland however, the area behind the beach is now covered in houses and lawns,“ Scott
Freeman with the Department of Conservation said. Cobble-loving skinks can’t survive on
lawns.

Exacerbating habitat destruction, the skinks were also facing a threat shared with almost all
New Zealand’s native animals: invasive predators like cats and rats. Before humans arrived
on New Zealand, it was a land of birds, weird, wild, strange birds like the now extinct
family of giant moas and the still–surviving kakapo. The arrival of humans wiped out many
of New Zealand’s species, including all of its moas. Human-brought mammals – like rats,
mice, cats, hedgehogs, sheep, and dogs – wiped out others. Cobble skinks had hung on until
now.

With only a few dozen left, conservationists decided something had to be done – and fast.
Spring 2016 brought unusually high tides and storm surges, even as conservationists
headed to the beach just behind Miners on Sea to implement Operation Skink Rescue. Over
the next few months, they employed artificial rocks to entice the skinks to hide under them
with funnel traps inside to catch them. Captured skinks were flown to Auckland Zoo where
Gibson, the curator of birds and ectotherms, oversees their care. In all, conservationists
captured 38 survivors.

Today, the total population has risen by two to 40, said Gibson: the extras are “youngsters
born here [at the zoo], the size of a wriggly matchstick, to mothers who arrived pregnant.”

A 2015 genetic study of the now-captive lizards surprised scientists: the cobble skins are
actually an interbreeding population of what were once four different groups each with a
separate common ancestor – scientists call such groups ‘clades’. These four clades have
been messily hybridizing for generations, over time becoming a single species.

“This is a fascinating situation in evolutionary terms – not that unusual in plants but
extremely unusual in animals,” Gibson said, adding that a paper officially describing the
cobble skink as a new species has yet to be written.

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Locals have seen zero cobble skinks behind the pub since – and scientists aren’t expecting
to find anymore. Over the last year, waves have washed their habitat away.

Phil Perrott, co-owner of Miners on Sea pub and hotel, said the rescue operation of the
skinks was a “fantastic effort” by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. According
to Perrott, the conservationists not only saved the skinks from worsening erosion and rising
seas – but also from local joyriders.

Perrott said that the Regional Council – “who have their heads up their proverbial,”
according to him – insisted that vehicles be allowed to drive on the beach even though they
knew it would threaten the near-extinct species.

But most people in the village “certainly take an interest in the skink’s survival,” Perrott
added. Indeed, the skink has been immortalized in a stone sculpture at the village school.

Stories similar to the cobble skink’s are likely to become more common in our age of mass
extinction: just last year scientists announced the first mammal extinction due to climate
change. Like the cobble skink, the Bramble Cay melomys saw its habitat, in this case a cay
in the Great Barrier Reef, flooded by higher storm surges. Conservationists now lament that
they didn’t attempt a captive breeding programme before the Bramble Cay melomys was
lost.

Thanks to rapid action, the cobble skink’s story isn’t over yet. Researchers are currently
looking for areas where one day the skinks may be able to be introduced back into the wild.

“The difficulty is finding sites that have suitable habitat and are not being impacted by
coastal erosion,” Freeman said.

The Auckland Zoo expects to house the skinks – off exhibit – for several years at least.
Keepers are now working on moving the skinks from quarantine cages into more
naturalistic enclosures to facilitate breeding.

“Without a captive programme [the cobble skink] will be extinct,” said Gibson. “Currently
the programme might be considered an ‘Ark’ – the last hope for a displaced species with
nowhere to live in the wild – but soon we hope it will become an active breeding and
release programme, restoring the cobble skink to its original, or as near as we can manage,
home on the West Coast of New Zealand.”

According to Gibson, the “good zoos” of the modern era not only work to educate visitors,
but also participate in direct conservation efforts, such as captive breeding, funding field
programmes, and publishing papers on animal behavior and biology that help field
conservationists. The Auckland Zoo is even working to turn an off-shore island into an
invasive species-free sanctuary for threatened New Zealand species.

Every year scientists discover on average about 18,000 new species. Few of these make the
headlines, but many are threatened with extinction on discovery. Worse is the fact that

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thousands of species have probably already vanished before scientists can document them.
Discovery has become a race against time, conservation a race against oblivion, and the
financial resources to do both – discover and conserve – remain far below what is required.

At least for the cobble skink, tomorrow is another day. And now Miners on Sea not only
has the best view in town, but also the wildest tale.