SPECIES: Eulamprus leuraensis — Blue Mountains Water Skink
CLASSIFICATION: Endangered
As the name suggests, the Blue Mountains is where you will find the endangered Blue Mountains Water Skink. It's ideal habitat is semi-aquatic at high elevation, in a good bog or swamp within the region. During the cooler parts of the year, the Blue Mountains Water Skink hibernates. Interestingly, an egg will hatch inside the female and young are born live. Camouflage plays a large part in its survival, with its distinctive yellow/bronze stripes along its dark brown body and dots of the same tones on its tail to also caution and deter predators.
Danger now for this skink, as less than 40 sub-popultions of the Blue Mountains Water Skink now remain. Threats to this reptile are pollution and damage to its habitat.
Photo: Photo: By Sarshag7 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39...