The lizard of the mountain. A skink that lives on a single volcano. The Egmont Skink is defined by a range that is limited to a single volcanic peak. At eighteen to twenty-two centimetres in length, it is a large, robust skink, with dark brown to greyish-brown colouration and pale flecks and stripes that provide camouflage among the rocks and scrub. The belly is pale cream, and the eyes are dark and watchful. A lizard that exists nowhere else. This is a skink of the high slopes. The Egmont Skink is found only on Mount Taranaki, from the montane forests to the subalpine scrub. It basks on sun-warmed rocks and logs, soaking up the heat that will fuel its hunting. It is an agile forager, moving quickly through the vegetation, searching for insects and spiders. Biologically, the Egmont Skink is a viviparous species, giving birth to live young. Females produce two to four offspring each year, a slow reproductive rate that makes the species vulnerable to population decline. The young are born in late summer and are miniature versions of the adults, independent from birth. The Egmont Skink is one of New Zealand's rarest lizards. Its entire population is confined to the slopes of a single mountain, and it is threatened by habitat loss, predation, and climate change. To see an Egmont Skink is to see a creature that exists nowhere else on Earth. The mountain is steep. The skink basks on a sun-warmed rock, dark brown and striped, watching. The rats are climbing higher. The skink does not know it is rare. It does not know it is confined. It just wants to bask in the sun. The mountain is its home. It has nowhere else to go.