The Mackenzie Basin is not kind. The Canterbury Skink does not need it to be. The lizard of the high country. Canterbury Skink has a love of open spaces and a talent for surviving in the harsh environment of the Mackenzie Basin. At fourteen to eighteen centimetres in length, it is a medium-sized skink, with brown to greyish-brown colouration and darker stripes along the back and sides. Belly is pale cream, eyes dark and watchful. A lizard that has seen the wind blow. A skink of the tussock and the rock. Found only in the Canterbury region, in tussock grasslands, rocky outcrops, and riverbeds. A diurnal species, active during the day, it basks on schist rocks and sun-warmed stones, soaking up the heat that will fuel its hunting. A lizard that lives where the shade is scarce. Viviparous, giving birth to live young. Females produce three to five offspring each year, a relatively high reproductive rate that allows the species to recover quickly from disturbance. The young are born in late summer and are miniature versions of the adults, independent from birth. A quick return. A short wait. Threatened by habitat loss from farming and irrigation, and by predation from introduced rats, cats, and hedgehogs. Its restricted range makes it vulnerable to localised threats, and its population is declining. The water is being pumped. The rocks are being moved. The skink has nowhere else to go. To see a Canterbury Skink is to see a lizard of the high country, a survivor of the harsh environment of the Mackenzie Basin. Its future depends on protection of its tussock grassland habitat and predator control. The skink basks on a schist rock. The sun is warm. The tussock rustles. The skink does not know that the irrigation pumps are running. It does not know that the cats are hunting. It just basks. That is all it can do.