New Reports of The Cape Verde Giant Skink
The Cape Verde giant skink is believed to have gone extinct from the islands in the 1940s by Westerners. However recent reports suggest the date is much more recent.
A tour guide I contacted on one of the major islands has reports from that island of large lizards existing up until the 2000s. This is even more incredible because the Cape Verde Skink was not known from this island by westerners in historic times. By the time anyone in the West knew about them they were restricted to Branco and Raso, two tiny uninhabited islands. This suggests that they were more widespread than anyone realized. It also leaves the possibility of their survival on other small islands in the chain, or possibly even the large islands.
The guide knows nothing about the skink, and didn't know they went extinct in 1940 until I told him what westerners believed.
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