Recovery plan for Slater's skink, Egernia slateri. 2005 - 2010
Pavey, Christopher R; Northern Territory. Department of Infrastructure, Planning And Environment; Natural Heritage Trust (Australia)
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT
2004
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:2004
Abbreviations -- Summary -- Introduction and general requirments -- Distribution and habitat -- Known and potential threats -- Recovery objectives and criteria -- Recovery actions -- References.
English
Skinks -- Northern Territory; Reptiles -- Conservation -- Northern Territory; Rare Reptiles -- Australia, Central; Endangered species -- Australia -- Management; Endangered Species -- Australia, Central
Dept. of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment
Alice Springs
22 pages : map ; 30 cm.
application/pdf
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/e-slateri/index.html; http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/e-slateri/index.html [Australian Government. Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.]
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/214470
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/713898
10 The NT subspecies has been collected from locations in the Finke and MacDonnell Ranges bioregions. In the 1960s the subspecies appears to have been abundant around Alice Springs. Fifty-eight specimens were collected at the type locality 5 km south of Alice Springs in the Finke bioregion in 1964 and 1965. Another 32 specimens were collected at the junction of Ellery Creek and Jerimah Creek, adjacent tributaries of the Finke River near Hermannsburg (MacDonnell Ranges bioregion) in 1964. Ken Slater and David Lindner collected these specimens. A single specimen was taken on the Palmer River on Tempe Downs Station (Finke bioregion) in 1965 by Slater and Harold Cogger. Prior to this, E. G. Cowle took two specimens in 1897 at what is now Illamurta Springs CR (MacDonnell Ranges bioregion). Current distribution Since the 1960s numbers have declined dramatically. Surveys of the Alice Springs and Ellery Creek-Jerimah Creek localities, plus nearby sites, failed to locate any individuals during 1995 and 1999-2000. An Egernia specimen obtained during a survey of Loves Creek Station, East MacDonnell Ranges (MacDonnell Ranges bioregion), in 1989 is likely to be this species (Gibson, Thomson, Coleman et al. 1992, S. McAlpin personal communication). In the same year three specimens were taken and other individuals captured well out of range in Purnululu (Bungle Bungle) National Park in the Ord-Victoria Plains bioregion, WA (Woinarski 1992). Aplin and Smith (2001) suggest that this population may not actually be E. s. slateri, rather it may represent an undescribed species or the closely related Striated Egernia, E. striata. However, given that the taxonomic status of the population has not been resolved, it is considered as E. s. slateri for the purposes of this recovery plan. The only records of Slaters Skink between 1995 and 2000 were seven specimens captured in Finke Gorge NP (MacDonnell Ranges bioregion). A survey carried out by Greg Fyfe (ASDP) in May 2004 located individuals at one new location (near the Hugh River on Owen Springs Reserve, MacDonnell Ranges bioregion), and three previously known locations: Illamurta Springs CR, Tempe Downs Station, and Ellery Creek. Habitat In the NT, Slaters Skink occurs on plains in the valleys of major drainages (Todd and Finke River). Habitat on these floodplains consists of Eucalypt and Mulga woodland, open woodland and shrubland on alluvial soils. The species burrows in soil at the base of trees and shrubs, particularly Corkwood (Hakea divaricata) and Turpentine (Eremophila sturtii), but also Eremophila maculata. Individuals located during surveys of sites in the MacDonnell and Finke bioregions during 2004 occurred in loamy (not sandy) soils, mostly at the edge of floodplains i.e. at the base of stony rises (G. Fyfe unpublished data).