The Story Of How The Giant ‘Terror Skink’ Was Presumed Extinct, Then Rediscovered

The giant terror skink, or Boucort’s terrific skink, was first documented to science in the 1870s by the renowned botanist, Benjamin Balansa. Balansa, a research associate at the Paris Museum of Natural History, spent five years conducting fieldwork in the remote South Pacific island chain of New Caledonia.

Among his many finds was Phoboscincus bocourti, a giant skink measuring 20+ inches. Its fang-like teeth and menacing disposition earned it the name “terror skink.” It also goes by the name Bocourt’s terrific skink, in honor of Marie-Firmin Bocourt, a French artist and zoologist who also worked at the Paris Museum of Natural History and was first to recognize the specimen brought back by Balansa from New Caledonia as belonging to an undescribed species.

This single specimen was all that was known of New Caledonia’s giant terror terror skink for practically the entire twentieth century. Once one the top predators in its ecosystem, the skink was presumed to be extinct by the latter half of the 1900s, due to a combination of habitat degradation and the introduction of rodents, such as the Pacific rat and the common mouse, to the New Caledonian islands.

However, a fortuitous 2003 expedition to a small group of islands in southern New Caledonia changed this narrative. Ivan Ineich, one of the lead researchers on the expedition, describes his important find in a 2009 publication:

“In December 2003, during a field trip devoted to the study of New Caledonian sea kraits, a specimen of the large lizard Phoboscincus bocourti (family Scincidae) was caught and photographed on a small islet south of Grande Terre, off Isle of Pines,” he writes. “To avoid illegal collecting of that rediscovered giant lizard, we do not give the precise name of that islet and refer to it as ‘X Islet.’”

Since then, additional specimens have been discovered in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2018, suggesting that terror skink populations live on in the isolated southern islands of New Caledonia–even if it has disappeared from the larger New Caledonian islands where it once had a stronghold.

Stories like these give hope that other species, thought to be extinct, may be hiding in the remote reaches of their habitat. Ineich, the scientist who rediscovered the terror skink, also believes that the giant Tongan ground skink, another giant skink species that was documented to science around the same time as the terror skink and has since been declared extinct, may still be living in the remaining forested areas of the Tongan islands.

Other examples of “lost and found” species include Australia’s central rock-rat, Hawaii’s greater akialoa and North America’s mythical ivory-billed woodpecker (although the rediscovery of the latter species remains contentious and a continued source of scientific debate to this day).

However, it is important to keep in mind that a majority of rediscovered species remain critically endangered, with a high chance of subsequent extinction. For instance, the greater akialoa was rediscovered in 1969, but hasn’t been observed since.

“Although species rediscoveries are often celebrated by the media and help identify natural areas that are worth protecting, the real challenge is using rediscoveries to encourage national and local authorities to support future conservation efforts,” states Ineich. “Indeed, the long-term survival of a rediscovered species cannot be guaranteed.”.