LAND VERTEBRATES

As with all oceanic islands, vertebrate land animals, apart from birds, are rare. Lord Howe Island has just three other native vertebrate land animals - a small species of insect eating bat and two species of lizards - a gecko that grows to about six centimetres in length (Christinus guentheri), and a skink about ten centimetres in length (Leilopisma lichenigera).

There are no native frogs or terrestrial mammals, as Lord Howe Island is too far from neighbouring land masses for these types of animals to have reached.

BIRDS

Birds have the greatest mobility of all terrestrial creatures and form the principal fauna of small oceanic islands, including Lord Howe, which has substantial breeding populations of land and seabirds. Two hundred and five species of birds have been recorded on Lord Howe Island, of which 32 are regular breeders today - fourteen species of seabirds, and eighteen species of landbirds, plus a number of regular visitors that return at the same time each year on migratory paths.

Learn More About The Land Vertebrates Of Lord Howe Island