Emoia nativitatis (Christmas Island Whiptail-skink)

[surroundx]

"Gump has lived a cossetted life, nurtured in a cage on Christmas Island. Until last year, she had two acquaintances, but misadventure claimed them both.

Now there is only Gump. She’s the last known individual Forest Skink on Earth; as close to extinction as a species can possibly get, and her relative longevity is staving off, very temporarily, the final obliteration of a species that has probably lived for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years."

Source: theconversation.com/australian-endangered-species-christmas-island-forest-skink-18053

Although a single individual still remains, the species is functionally extinct as far as anybody knows, and hence I have decided to place it here among the other extinct reptiles.

[surroundx]

A photo of the reptile centre where Gump is kept can be seen here: www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/gump27s-last-home/5011096

[Melanie]

Correct spelling

Emoia nativittatis

[surroundx]

Nov 16, 2013 12:19:54 GMT Melanie said:

Correct spelling

Emoia nativittatis

Are you sure, Melanie? The IUCN Redlist, as well as virtually every other source I can find spells the name with one 't' and not two. The Reptile Database is an exception, but since most source spell the name with one t it seems more likely to me that that is how it is meant to be spelled.

[Peter]

G.A. Boulenger described it as Lygosoma nativitatis, so the correct name now is Emoia nativitatis (Boulenger, 1887).

Its first description can be found at:
archive.org/details/cbarchive_49754_reportonazoologicalcollectionm9999
BOULENGER, G. A. 1887. Reptiles, in A. Günther, Report on a zoological collection made by the officers of H.M.S. Flying-Fish at Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1887:515-517.

[surroundx]

Nov 16, 2013 13:29:16 GMT Peter said:

G.A. Boulenger described it as Lygosoma nativitatis, so the correct name now is Emoia nativitatis (Boulenger, 1887).

Thanks for the clarification, Peter

[Melanie]

Nov 16, 2013 12:38:46 GMT surroundx said:

Nov 16, 2013 12:19:54 GMT Melanie said:

Correct spelling

Emoia nativittatis

Are you sure, Melanie?

Reptile Database refer to Cogger (1983, 2000) who spelled it with a double t, see also Cogger,H.G. 2000. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp.

[Sebbe]

Vale ‘Gump’, the last known Christmas Island Forest Skink

The last known Christmas Island Forest Skink (Emoia nativitatis) died in captivity on May 31st, 2014.

theconversation.com/vale-gump-the-last-known-christmas-island-forest-skink-30252

[Melanie]

Jan 2, 2015 20:54:22 GMT Sebbe said:

Vale ‘Gump’, the last known Christmas Island Forest Skink

The last known Christmas Island Forest Skink (Emoia nativitatis) died in captivity on May 31st, 2014.

theconversation.com/vale-gump-the-last-known-christmas-island-forest-skink-30252

Poor little guy. Sad news ;-(

[surroundx]

Woinarski, John C. Z., Garnett, Stephen T., Legge, Sarah M. and Lindenmayer, David B. (2016). The contribution of policy, law, management, research, and advocacy failings to the recent extinctions of three Australian vertebrate species. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12852 [Abstract]

[Peter]

Emoia nativitatis, C. sadleiri (as Gymnodactylus marmoratus), and R. exocoeti (reassigned from the genus Typhlops by Wallach 2003) were the first reptile species to be collected on the island in 1887 (Gibson-Hill 1947).
...
The declines in the lizard species L. listeri, C. egeriae, E. nativitatis, and E. atrocostata appear to have occurred over the last 20 to 30 years as Cogger et al. (1983) considered these species to be abundant in 1979.
...
Other than Egeria Point, the most recent area from which C. egeriae and E. nativitatis disappeared was the North West Point (Figs. 3–4) which occurred between mid to late 2008 and early 2009.
...
In the more northern section of Egeria Point (Figs. 3–4), C. egeriae and E. nativitatis were noticeably beginning to decline from the semi-deciduous closed forest, early in 2009, so that by mid to late 2009 they were mostly found in the Pandanus forest. Both species then contracted in a southerly direction within the Pandanus forest (Figs. 3–4).
...
Emoia nativitatis was last seen in August 2010 in the southern section of Egeria Point.

Smith MJ, Cogger H, Tiernan B, Maple D, Boland C, Napier F, Detto T, & Smith P (2012) "An Oceanic island reptile community under threat: The decline of reptiles on Christmas Island, Indian Ocean" Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 7(2): 206–218. herpconbio.org/Volume_7/Issue_2/Smith_etal_2012.pdf

[Peter]

Since 2009, a captive population of this species has been established in holding cages on Christmas Island. The captive population consists of one individual (Director of National Parks, pers. comm., 2013). The forest skink was seen in 2010 at Egeria Point (Smith et al., 2012).
...
The forest skink is endemic to Christmas Island and the population has undergone a very severe reduction in population size since 1979. Although numbers were not recorded in the 1979 survey, it was reported to be the most abundant and widespread of the diurnal lizards (Cogger and Sadlier, 1981). As per figure 1 below, the 1979 survey data show the species was found to be present at 16 sites across the Island. In 1998 survey data, the forest skink was found at 13 sites (Schulz and Barker, 2008).
...
Monitoring between 2003 and 2005, which sampled 320 sites across the Island, reported the forest skink to have “declined severely” and was likely to be confined to scattered, localised pockets in more remote areas of the coastal terraces and first inland cliff (Director of National Parks, 2008). Further decline was evident in the 2008 targeted searches, which reported the species from only one remaining site (Schulz and Barker, 2008). Surveys were undertaken in 2009 and 2011 which showed no record of the forest skink from any of the 900 sampled sites (Director of National Parks, 2012). The forest skink was last seen in August 2010 at Egeria Point (Smith et al., 2012).

Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) (2014). Commonwealth Conservation Advice for Emoia nativitatis (Christmas Island Forest Skink). Canberra: Department of the Environment. Available from: www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species/pubs/1400-conservation-advice.pdf. In effect under the EPBC Act from 03-Jan-2014.

[Sebbe]

This species was formerly reported to be generally common. Declines were first reported in 1998 (Cogger and Sadlier 1999) but only understood to be extreme as late as 2005 (James 2004, Schulz and Barker 2008), only five years before the species was last recorded in the wild (Andrew et al. 2016). Despite extensive surveys, the forest skink was last seen in the wild in August 2010 and the last known individual died in captivity in 2014 (Andrew et al. 2016). Efforts to establish a captive breeding programme from August 2009 failed because only three individuals of this species, all female, could be captured (Andrew et al. 2016). In 2013, before the last individual's death in 2014, the species was considered functionally extinct (Woinarski and Cogger 2013) and now presumably must be extinct.

www.iucnredlist.org/details/178595/0

[surroundx]

Washington, Haydn. (2018). The last stand. Wildlife Australia 55(1): 36-39. [Abstract]

[surroundx]

Oliver, Paul M., Blom, M. P. K., Cogger, Hal G., Fisher, R. N., Richmond, J. Q. and Woinarski, J. C. Z. (2018). Insular biogeographic origins and high phylogenetic distinctiveness for a recently depleted lizard fauna from Christmas Island, Australia. Biol. Lett. 14: 20170696.

[surroundx]

Emery, Jon-Paul et al. (2021). The lost lizards of Christmas Island: A retrospective assessment of factors driving the collapse of a native reptile community. Conservation Science and Practice 3:e358. doi: doi.org/10.1111/csp2.358

[Melanie]

Photographes of Gump

www.inaturalist.org/observations/42715146

[redpinnipedgamer]

Lemme upload my photos I've found

[redpinnipedgamer]

Sadly these photo's sources have been removed from their website since I archived them earlier this year. Luckily I was able to grab them in time.  Photos are from 2012-2013

www.oceanwideimages.com/Large-Image.asp?pID=20601&cID=817&rp=species%252Easp%253Fs%253DEmoia%2Bnativitatis%2526p%253D1

www.oceanwideimages.com/Large-Image.asp?pID=20603&cID=817&rp=species%252Easp%253Fs%253DEmoia%2Bnativitatis%2526p%253D1

www.oceanwideimages.com/Large-Image.asp?pID=20602&cID=817&rp=species%252Easp%253Fs%253DChristmas%2BIsland%2BWhip%252Dtail%2BSkink%2526p%253D1

[redpinnipedgamer]

Photo from facebook unknown date
www.facebook.com/IslandCareChristmasIsland/photos/a.6372407442830336/7399404316797305/?type=3#_=_