Rare lizard spotted spotted at Canopy Tours
Recently during one of our eco tours through the forest, two of our guides and a group of ten excited customers spotted the skink hanging out on the side of an ancient Rimu tree. This tree towers seven stories in the sky, on our highest zipline platform.
Photo: Rare lizzard – Striped skink was found while on a zipline tour at Rotorua Canopy Tours.
New Zealand is home to approximately 99 species of Gecko and Skink. Of these, one-third are found nowhere else in the world. Interestingly, about 50% of these have only been discovered in the last 20 years. So little is known about Striped Skinks that scientists have not had an opportunity to study them properly. Finding this one so high off the ground adds to the belief that they are mainly arboreal, spending most of their time in tree canopies in amongst epiphytes.
Photo: Fewer than 150 of these lizzards have ever been recorded, making this an increadibly exciting discovery for the team.
Who knows what else we will discover as the forest…come on our Rotorua Eco Tour and see what you can spot!