Taxonomy
Common name :
Le scinque du Nord aux hanches pâles
Red List Status -
Endangered (EN) , assessed in 11/12/2017Protected species -
in Southern Province , in Northern Province
Celatiscincus similis is listed as Endangered because it has a restricted distribution with an estimation of only three locations and there is continuing decline estimated in its area of occupancy, extent and quality of its habitat and number of mature individuals. The population on the Taom massif is exposed to a high level of risk from nickel mining and the subpopulations at lower elevation are at risk to habitat damage from wildfires. All subpopulations are under threat from invasive species.
Geographical area
This species is endemic to Province Nord, New Caledonia. It is known from five localities representing two widely-separated sub-populations in the north of Grande Terre. Three of these localities are on the northeast coast north of Hienghène (Ouaïème, Tao and La Guen) and two on the northwest coast north of Voh (Síba and Mt Taom). It occurs at elevations of up to 1,000 m. The extent of occurrence is estimated at 265 km2 and the area of occupancy at 32 km2.
Population
There are no data on population size and trends for this species. At low elevations it is assumed to have undergone a reduction in the area of occupancy as a result of past habitat destruction through clearance for farming or associated with mining. Mining will also have destroyed significant areas of habitat on the summit of Taom. The species is not uncommon at the high-elevation site on Mt Taom.
Habitat
This species occurs in closed forests at low elevations and, at high elevations (Mt Taom), it has been found in montane forest and maquis shrubland. It is diurnal, terrestrial and active in sunlight. It shelters beneath litter and stones, and basks and forages in light-gaps.
Threats
The western populations of Celatiscincus similis are under the high threat of habitat loss as a result of the expanding nickel mine on the summit of Taom and the sporadic nickel mining that occurs at lower-elevations in the vicinity of Tinip, with the addition of wildfires in adjacent savanna or maquis shrublands who are a recurrent threat to forest margins, particularly at lower elevations. The eastern subpopulation is highly threatened from the introduced ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, which has a detrimental impact on the skinks in low to mid-elevation forests (Jourdan et al. 2000, 2001) and by the predation pressure from Introduced mammals such as rodents (Thibault 2017) and cats (Palmas 2017).
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). This species is present in the Réserve de Nature Sauvage du Mt Panié. No conservation management is currently being undertaken.
Bibliography
Thibault, M., Brescia, F., Vidal, E. and Jourdan, H. 2017. Invasive rodents, an overlooked threat for skinks in a tropical island hotspot of biodiversity. New Zealand Ecological Society(41) , p.74-83.
Palmas, P., Jourdan, H., Rigault, F., Debar, L., De Meringo, H., Bourguet, E., Mathivet, M., Lee, M., Adjouhgniope, R., Papillon, Y. and Bonnaud, E. 2017. Feral cats threaten the outstanding endemic fauna of the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot. Biological Conservation(214) , p.250-259.
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.
Sadlier, R.A., Smith, S.A. and Bauer, A.M. 2006. A New Genus for the New Caledonian Scincid Lizard Lygosoma euryotis Werner, 1909, and the Description of a New Species. Records of the Australian Museum(58) , p.19-28.
Bauer, A.M. and Sadlier, R.A. 2000. The Herpetofauna of New Caledonia.
Uetz, P. (ed.) 2017. The Reptile Database.
IUCN 2021. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2.
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): Warimavute, G., Lietar, J., Tanguy, V.