Taxonomy
Common name :
Le scinque commun de litière
Common Litter Skink Red List Status -
Least Concern (LC) , assessed in 11/12/2017Protected species -
in Southern Province , in Northern Province
Caledoniscincus austrocaledonicus is listed as Least Concern as it remains very widespread, is able to occupy disturbed and modified habitats, and is generally abundant wherever it occurs.
Geographical area
This species is endemic to New Caledonia. It occurs throughout Grande Terre, and on Iles Belep, Ile des Pins, Iles Loyauté (Maré, Lifou, Ouvéa) and many smaller satellite islands. It occurs at elevations up to 1,000 m. The extent occurrence is estimated at 88,450 km2 and the area of occupancy at 1,108 km2.
Population
There are no quantitative data on population size and trends for this species. However, the fact that it can occur in modified environments, sometimes in reasonable abundance, will have compensated to some extent for the widespread losses and degradation of natural habitats in the past.
Habitat
This species occurs in a very wide range of open and wooded habitats, including coastal sites, grassland, savanna, sclerophyll forest, and maquis shrublands. It is present in disturbed forests but generally absent from the interior of dense closed forest. It is diurnal, terrestrial, and is active in sunlight. It shelters in litter and dense vegetation, and forages in the open and in sunlit patches.
Threats
This species is threatened by further loss and fragmentation of natural forest and shrubland habitats through clearance for agriculture and afforestation,and to a lesser extent by mining and wildfires, particularly when these result in a highly simplified vegetation (e.g. exotic pasture). In low and mid-elevation forested habitats there is a potentially significant threat from the introduced ant, Wasmannia auropunctatus, which is known to decimate lizard populations, and predation by introduced mammals (rodents and cats) is an ever-present issue.
Conservation
This species is protected in Province Nord under Code de l'environnement de la Province Nord (Délibération No. 306-2008/APN, 24 October 2008) and in Province Sud under Code de l'environnement de la Province Sud (Délibération No. 25-2009/APS, 20 March 2009). It is present in most reserves throughout New Caledonia. No specific conservation management is currently being undertaken
Bibliography
Jourdan, H., Sadlier, R.A. and Bauer, A.M. 2000. Premières observations sur les conséquences de l’invasion de Wasmannia auropunctata 1863 (Roger) sur les prédateurs supérieurs dans les écosystèmes Néo-calédoniens. Actes des collectes insectes sociaux(13) , p.121-126.
Jourdan, H., Sadlier, R.A. and Bauer, A.M. 2001. Little Fire Ant Invasion (Wasmannia auropunctata) as a threat to New Caledonian lizards: Evidences from a sclerophyll forest (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology(38) , p.283-301.
IUCN 2021. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2.
Sadlier, R.A., Bauer, A.M. and Colgan, D.J. 1999. The scincid lizard genus Caledoniscincus (Reptilia: Scincidae) from New Caledonia in the Southwest Pacific: a review of Caledoniscincus austrocaledonicus (Bavay) and description of six new species from Province Nord. Records of the Australian Museum(51) , p.57-82.
Bauer, A.M. and Sadlier, R.A. 2000. The Herpetofauna of New Caledonia.
Experts
Assessor(s): Sadlier, R., Bauer, A., Jourdan, H., Astrongatt, S., Deuss, M., Duval, T., Bourguet, E., McCoy, S., Bouteiller, A., Lagrange, A.
Reviewer(s): Cox, N.
Contributor(s): Whitaker, A.
Facilitator(s): Lietar, J., Tanguy, V., Warimavute, G.