Indigenous rangers, scientists work to save culturally significant lizard

Indigenous rangers across Australia's desert regions have joined forces with traditional owners and scientists to help bring a reptile back from the brink of extinction.

Endemic to Australia, the Great Desert Skink was once common across Australia's inland, but the Indigenous Desert Alliance said there are now only between 5,000 to 7,000 left in the wild — classifying it at threat of extinction.

An ecologist involved in the national species recovery plan, Lara Paijmans, said populations have "really retracted so they're only known from 20 locations around the desert".

"We've seen a decrease in surveys we did in 2026, but we're not sure if that's because of increased rain that made it hard to find their burrows or if there's actually a decrease happening," she said.

Ms Paijmans said the skinks had attributes that made them unique.

"It has live young and they live with their family for two years in a communal burrow which is quite unusual for lizards," she said.

"They'll live with grandparents, parents and children all in the one burrow system.

"And one thing that's quite funny about them is they all go to the toilet in one area. They have a communal latrine.

"The Great Desert Skink is quite a special animal."

Up to 20 ranger groups from across the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia, and operating in the skinks' 770,000 square kilometre range, have been conducting national population surveys every year since 2023.

The groups included the Tjakura Rangers based at the remote community Mutitjulu at the base of Uluru. It was named after the reptile, which was also known by different First Nations groups as Mulyamiji, Warrarna and Nampu.

The Tjakura Rangers help to manage the Katiti Petermann Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) where burrows have been found on the border with Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

The IPA regional coordinator Garth Forrester said the skink was connected to creation stories and had "significance to Aboriginal people culturally and also biodiversity-wise as well".

He said the Tjakura had long been a source of food for Aboriginal people, but hunting stopped when people noticed their numbers had dropped.

"There's not a lot of Tjakura sites in the world today, not as many as there used to be, so we're just fortunate to have some here on the Katiti Petermann," he said.

"We're trying to take it from being a threatened or vulnerable animal to one that you can actually find a bit more, back to being common.

"The rangers are lucky to have combined our knowledge together with traditional owners, rangers and also visiting ecologists or scientists from other organisations."

With fire and predators listed as the biggest threats to the Great Desert Skink, rangers are using a combination of managing fire, removing predators and monitoring known sites with camera traps.

"Monitor the sites, monitor the population, check to see if there's droppings, tracks … checking out to see what other animals are here," Mr Forrester said.

"There are two main native predators — a snake and goanna — around here, but then you have the introduced ones like rabbits, you also have cats … foxes are rare but they can be around the area.

"The Tjakura sure aren't safe sometimes."

Another survey will be held next year to see if numbers have improved.