Ten years ago, the sight of a six-toothed skink in Darwin would have sent reptile scientists into a frenzy. Now, it seems the Arnhem land species has taken over the city and scientists want the public's help to track its spread.
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00:00Meet the six-toothed rainbow skink, native to Australia but not to Darwin.
00:09But over the past ten years, their numbers have boomed.
00:13These things will wander up onto the back porch looking for food and we watch them from
00:20our pool eating insects.
00:21They're normally found in far north Queensland and the far northeast Northern Territory.
00:28It's most likely brought them further west.
00:30With the help of decades old specimens from the NT Museum's vast collections, this PhD
00:36candidate is trying to piece together their spread.
00:39This species seems to be spreading across Darwin and one of the first things we want
00:43to do is get a lot of records across the town of where they are and where they aren't.
00:48Top end residents are the research team's eyes and ears on the ground.
00:51By recording the skinks you see in your own backyard and uploading them online, you can
00:56help the researchers understand more about the spread of the six-toothed rainbow skink
01:01in the top end.
01:02Yeah, I'd be really interested in knowing what suburbs they occur in.
01:05Should we go have a look around here?
01:06Yeah, let's do it.
01:07There's one.
01:08There's one right there.
01:09Get him.
01:10Got him.
01:11Six-toothed rainbow skink.
01:12Very pretty lizard but they're not meant to be here.
01:22A lot larger than local skinks, they're easy to spot at home, but unlike notorious Australian
01:28invaders like the cane toad, they're not necessarily problematic.
01:32I certainly wouldn't encourage people to do anything about them.
01:38At the moment they're just delightful little lizards in people's backyard.
01:44Enjoy them while they're here.
01:47Building a clearer picture of a mysterious critter.