Five-lined skink (Eumeces fasciatus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 4

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Distribution

Global range

The geographic range of E. fasciatus roughly coincides with the deciduous hardwood forests of eastern North America (Fitch, 1954), making it the most widely distributed species in its genus (Taylor, 1936) and the most widely distributed lizard in eastern North America (Conant and Collins, 1998). The species’ range extends from the Atlantic seaboard west to Texas and Minnesota and from southern Ontario south to the Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1). The range is approximately square-shaped and spans roughly 1,600 km from north to south and from east to west (Fitch, 1954; Conant and Collins, 1998)

Canadian range

Within Canada, E. fasciatus is limited to two disjunct regions in south central and southwestern Ontario. The Great Lakes/St. Lawrence populations are distributed along the southern margin of the Canadian Shield from Georgian Bay eastward to Leeds and Grenville County. The Carolinian populations are primarily found near the shores of Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron (Figure 6).

As of May 2006, a total of 1,406 records existed in the Ontario Herpetofaunal Summary (OHS; Oldham and Weller, 2000). These records identify 229 populations recorded from 1881 to 2005, of which 184 were confirmed to be present after 1984 (the beginning of the Ontario Herpetofaunal Summary; Table 1). A recent summary report based on OHS records indicated that 27% of Ontario’s verified skink populations are considered either historic (not verified in last 20 years) or extirpated. All of the populations considered extirpated are Carolinian populations including all those on the Niagara Peninsula (NHIC, 2006, Figure 6).

Estimates of area of occupancy were calculated for Great Lakes/St. Lawrence and Carolinian populations by counting the number of 2 x 2 km (4km²) grid cells that were intersected by observations from 1995 to present (A. Filion, personal communciations [pers. comm.]).

Great Lakes/St. Lawrence populations

Estimated extent of occurrence for Great Lakes/St. Lawrence populations is 29,842 km². Estimated area of occupancy is 484 km².

Carolinian populations

Estimated extent of occurrence for Carolinian populations is 3,946 km². Estimated area of occupancy is 88 km².

In southwestern Ontario, ten populations have been recorded since 1984 (OHS; Oldham and Weller, 2000). Only five of these populations have recorded sightings of E. fasciatus since 1995 (Table 2). Although no post-1995 records for Walpole Island exist in the OHS, skinks have been incidentally observed there during the period 2002-2004 (C. Jacobs, pers. comm.).