Love lizards? Learn all about the Western Spiny-tailed Skink, a punkish reptile with a penchant for living in log castles. 

Sarah is joined by Dr Holly Bradley from Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, who shares her research of an elusive skink that’s found nowhere else on Earth except Western Australia. She talks about how a novel use of light technology is helping conservationists to understand the skink’s habitat needs and ensure its ongoing survival. 

• A world-first for LIDAR tech [02:23]
• A skink’s home is his castle [03:27]
• Translocation for homeless lizards [05:38]
• Managing predators and mine sites [08:29]
• ‘Every small action helps’ [13:10]
• Working as a sloth technician [15:14]

Learn more

• Saving these family-focused lizards may mean moving them to a new home. But that’s not as simple as it sounds.
• Light technology recreates ‘log castles’ to help save homeless lizards

Connect with our guest

Dr Holly Bradley, Researcher, School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University.

Holly has recently completed her PhD within Curtin’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding the ecology of the endangered Western Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia stokesii badia), to help improve translocation management and conservation of the subspecies.

Her research interests include conservation biology, threatened species management and restoration ecology.

Connect with Holly: 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Researcher profile

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Transcript

Read the transcript here. 

Behind the scenes

Host: Sarah Taillier
Researcher, Recorder and Editor: Zoe Taylor
Executive Producers: Anita Shore and Jarrad Long
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Eftos
Social Media Coordinator: Amy Hosking

First Nations Acknowledgement

Curtin University acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which Curtin Perth is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation, and on Curtin Kalgoorlie, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields; and the First Nations peoples on all Curtin locations.

Music

OKAY by 13ounce Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by Audio Library.

Curtin University supports academic freedom of speech. The views expressed in The Future Of podcast may not reflect those of Curtin University.