{"id":939765,"date":"2026-10-24T23:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939765\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T23:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:18:28","slug":"yakka-skink-numbers-increase-in-charleville-after-fences-installed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939765\/","title":{"rendered":"Yakka skink numbers increase in Charleville after fences installed"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Stephen Peck visits yakka skink colonies scattered between Cape York and southern Queensland, he sees a species at risk of extinction.<\/p>\n

But a population in Charleville, eight hours west of Brisbane, tells a different story.<\/p>\n

“We’re seeing an increase in all the age cohorts, which is really, really pleasing,” the University of Southern Queensland PhD candidate said.<\/p>\n

The enigmatic yakka skink is unusually social for a reptile; it defecates in communal latrines and never strays too far from home.<\/p>\n

“It lives in family groups, usually made up of a non-related adult pair and then multiple years of babies,” Mr Peck said.<\/p>\n

While a skink can live for 30 years, its tendency to stay within a small area makes it susceptible to introduced predators and land clearing.<\/p>\n

But its predictable nature has also made it easier to protect.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

A fox captured by a camera trap at an unfenced yakka skink site in Charleville. (Supplied: Andrew Taylor)<\/p>\n

Skink sanctuary allows juveniles to grow<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Mr Peck led a project to build fences around several yakka skink habitats in Charleville, and he continued to monitor individuals, recognisable by their unique chin patterns.<\/p>\n

“At the unfenced sites I’ve been trapping at this morning, I’ve been catching one or two. And here, in one of the fenced sites, I’ve caught 12 skinks,” he said.<\/p>\n

The four fenced sites now have an estimated population of 28, up from about 10.<\/p>\n

The fences exclude introduced predators like cats and foxes but still allow natural predators like snakes and birds to move through.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Fenced sites at Charleville allow skinks to develop out of reach of foxes and cats. (Supplied: Andrew Taylor)<\/p>\n

Recently, Mr Peck noticed some skinks from inside the enclosures had established themselves outside the fenced area after growing to a small adult size of about 400 millimetres long.<\/p>\n

“I think the large adults are probably just a little bit too big for cats,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I now have four colonies that have been set up from animals that have been born and matured inside the fence.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Stephen Peck has researched the yakka skink since 2008. (Supplied: Anne Love)<\/p>\n

The yakka skink has traditionally adopted wombat and bilby burrows but now uses rabbit burrows, too.<\/p>\n

Mr Peck said this behaviour showed the species could adapt and hoped there would eventually be enough skinks reproducing to keep up with predation.<\/p>\n

“We can’t fence every site in Queensland, that’s an unachievable goal,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we can fence some sites and get animals to survive and disperse and set up new colonies, we can maintain the species in the landscape.”<\/p>\n

He said three further sites in Charleville had recently been fenced.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Yakka skink babies live with their parents until they become sub-adults. (ABC Western Qld: Danielle Lancaster)<\/p>\n

Hope for reptiles lies in addressing threats<\/p>\n

Monash ecologist David Chapple said Mr Peck’s research demonstrated the significance of threat management on a local scale.<\/p>\n

“Ideally, what you’d want is the more range-wide reduction of the threats to the species, which I guess is the ultimate goal that we’re moving towards,” Professor Chapple said.<\/p>\n

He said the conservation status of Australian reptiles had declined, with 127 now believed to be threatened.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Some skinks that reach adulthood move outside the protective fences. (Supplied: Anne Love)<\/p>\n

Western Queensland remained a priority area for discovering and studying new species that were likely to be threatened.<\/p>\n

“We’re dealing with these large knowledge gaps, species that occur in remote and hard-to-access areas and an increasing number of threats across the range,” Professor Chapple said.<\/p>\n

“The only way we’re going to tackle this is by dedicated, well-funded and well-coordinated recovery plans and recovery efforts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Stephen Peck visits yakka skink colonies scattered between Cape York and southern Queensland, he sees a species…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2929,8174,44,9087,18329,506311,9525,29290],"class_list":["post-939765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-conservation","tag-ecology","tag-news","tag-outback","tag-reptile","tag-skink","tag-threatened-species","tag-vulnerable-species"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}