Noronha Skink

• Its ancestors crossed the Atlantic: genetic analyses indicate that the species descends from African skinks that reached the island on rafts of vegetation carried by the currents, a voyage of more than three thousand kilometres.
• It is extraordinarily tame and abundant on Fernando de Noronha, to the point of approaching visitors and restaurant tables, behaviour typical of island wildlife with no land predators.
• The cats and rats introduced to the archipelago are its main threat, along with the Argentine black and white tegu, also introduced to the island.
• It is endemic to Fernando de Noronha, a volcanic archipelago about 350 km off the coast of Brazil, and lives nowhere else.
• Its origin is a striking case of oceanic colonisation: its closest relatives are in Africa, and it is thought to have reached the island adrift on floating vegetation across the Atlantic.
• It eats everything: insects, nectar, fruit and even scraps of human food, and it has been observed licking nectar from flowers, acting as a pollinator.
• It is abundant and confiding, and approaches people in search of food, which makes it highly visible to visitors to the island.
• Its main threats are the species introduced to the archipelago, above all cats, rats and the tegu, an introduced lizard that preys on it.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

Forest, scrub and rocky areas of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, in Brazil

Sexual maturity

12 months

Gestation / incubation

3 months of gestation

Litter / clutch size

4 live young

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Trachylepis atlantica

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.