Reintroduction of the Telfair’s skink to Gunner’s Quoin, Mauritius

Summary

The Telfair's skink (Leiolopisma telfairii), a Vulnerable Mascarene lizard, had been reduced by introduced predators to a single population on Round Island off Mauritius, where introduced goats and rabbits also devastated its habitat until being eradicated by 1986. After neighboring islands were cleared of invasive mammals by 1998, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust selected 70-hectare Gunner's Quoin, a former skink stronghold with recovered habitat and predator-free status, for reintroduction. Feasibility work from 2002 included population viability modeling to assess the impact of removing skinks from Round Island, and in February 2007, with Darwin Initiative and Mauritian government funding, 250 skinks (83 males, 153 females, 14 sub-adults) were selected, individually PIT-tagged and translocated by helicopter for hard release across suitable habitat, supported by 72 permanent survey transects and public sensitization with police and coast guard to deter trespassing. Seasonal capture-mark-recapture monitoring over the following decade found high survival, recruitment and dispersal, no novel diseases or parasites, and genetic diversity matching the source population, with the skinks reaching their predicted carrying capacity in 2014 at an estimated 14,297 individuals, a 31.2% increase in the global population; native lizard populations stayed stable and the skink's own predator, the Round Island keel-scaled boa, was itself successfully reintroduced between 2012 and 2014. Persistent trespassing, invasive species incursions and limited local capacity for disease screening remained ongoing difficulties. The project rates itself successful, citing strong ecological understanding, removal of the original threats, sustained multi-agency partnership, and long-term monitoring and funding.