Monitoring the population status of a secretive lizard, the threatened heath skink Liopholis multiscutata, in south‐eastern Australia using surrogate metrics: An update

• Published in: Austral ecology 2023-06, Vol.48 (4), p.672-678
• Main Authors: Brown, Geoff W., Fanson, Ben G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: fossorial reptile; Habitat availability; Life history; Mallee; Monitoring; Population decline; Population status; Populations; Predation; semi‐arid environment; surrogate metric; threatened species; Trajectory analysis
• ISSN: 1442-9985; 1442-9993
• DOI: 10.1111/aec.13291

Our recent study compared monitoring data collected using surrogate metrics during 2014–2018 inclusive with baseline data from 2007 to evaluate the trajectory of the population status of the threatened heath skink Liopholis multiscutata in Victoria. The heath skink is a secretive burrowing species that is a habitat specialist and exists in north‐western Victoria as a few small and highly disjunct populations on large dunes in semi‐arid heathland or mallee. We re‐assessed the trajectories of the Victorian populations with additional monitoring data collected in 2021 and found continuing decline across all four Victorian heath skink populations. Urgent management intervention is required to arrest this decline, likely due to predation, reduced availability of habitat and life history and demographic traits that make this species susceptible to decline. The trajectories of the Victorian populations of the heath skink were re‐assessed with additional monitoring data collected in 2021. Continuing declines across all four Victorian heath skink populations were confirmed; intervention is required to arrest this decline.