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Skink found in driveway
puzzles experts
The big lizard banned here is often
kept as a pet on the mainland
State Department of Agriculture officials are trying to figure out how a nearly 2-foot-long Solomon Islands skink wound up in a driveway in Manoa.
"It definitely was a pet," said Keevin Minami, land vertebrate specialist. "Probably ran away."
Brad Tanaka said he and his family had just returned home from dinner Friday when he spotted the lizard as he was about to exit the family van.
"I opened the door, and it was right there in front of me," Tanaka said.
The sighting caused immediate commotion.
"All I heard was my stepbrother yell, 'It's an iguana!" said Sean Kanegawa.
Tanaka's mother ran to the house and returned with a butterfly net, which she gave to her son.
"I put the net in front of it, and it crawled into the net. It was real easy," Tanaka said.
The boys put the lizard into a plastic trash container as they waited for agriculture officials. The boys' father called a family friend who immediately recognized the lizard as a skink.
Agriculture officials will send the lizard to the Honolulu Zoo for herpetologists to determine the reptile's gender and to ask zoo officials if they can send it to the mainland.
Solomon Island skinks, also known as Solomon Islands prehensile-tailed skinks because of their ability to grasp tree branches by the tail, can grow to 2- 1/2 feet long. They are herbivores and spend most of their time in trees. They are kept as pets on the mainland but are prohibited in Hawaii.
The skinks are endemic to the Solomon Islands and are not considered endangered. However, the 167-member Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Fauna and Flora has a ban on its importation over concern of the lizard's loss of habitat.
The Solomon Islands is not a CITES member.
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