A lizard thought extinct for more than 30 years is currently enjoying a second shot at life in a undisclosed location outside of Adelaide.But with climate change turning up the heat in their original habitat and likely making it unliveable within the next few decades, researchers set up new sites in lower latitudes to see if pygmies can survive in those new environments.
Our job is to find the lizards burrows, "fish" them out using a mealworm on a string and then check how the population is faring.The pygmy blue-tongue has had an impressive history for a species that spends most of its time hiding in burrows., which are blue-tongued skinks native to Australia and surrounding islands.
This is much further south and cooler than the pygmy's traditional habitat, but the team was testing if the lizards could handle a change in climate. The Flinders University team has kept tabs on how the translocated lizards have fared in their new surroundings.But translocation — especially in relation to climate change — is not without its critics.University of Western Australia physiological ecologist Nicki Mitchell notes
"So, long story short, we started trials of assisted colonisation. It's the world's first example of a translocation of a threatened species motivated by climate change as the main threat." "Historically, we've translocated species everywhere. Species have been brought into Australia as crops or escaped pets," Dr Mitchell says.
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