The students of Strath Taieri School in Middlemarch are on a mission to save the giant Otago Skink by developing a natural habitat to help the rare and endangered species survive. 

Ruud “The Bugman” Kleinpaste visited the school last week as part of the TREEmendous Education Programme for 2022, an initiative from the Mazda Foundation. 

Kleinpaste spent the day with students and teachers to provide advice and resources to help the school incorporate its conservation and environmental work into the curriculum. 

The students are already helping local community groups with trapping predators in the neighbouring area to create a safe place for the rare skink to live. As a result, the skink population has flourished, and with the school’s further support to provide shelter and plants, such as fruit trees, that the skinks feed off, the skinks can continue to survive. 

Strath Taieri School is one of five winning schools from around the country that each received $1000 to go towards an environmental project along with 200 native trees from Trees that Count for the school grounds.

Principal Jim McArthur says the students are passionate about supporting and learning more about the critically endangered skink which lives right on the school’s doorstep.

“The children enjoyed spending the day with Ruud and the dedicated owners of the conservation land, McArthur said.

“The students were lucky enough to see these elusive endangered creatures for themselves and the youngest students saw an adult and infant pair which is an extremely rare sight for these shy reptiles.”

“They learnt valuable lessons on how to protect the endangered skinks and how they might be able to help them in their own habitat by growing the plants they require for food and shelter. We’ll continue to look at ways we can help the Otago skink and contribute to the conservation of the area – whether it’s building a nursery or helping with trapping.”