Mole Skink Taxonomy
Cedar Key mole skink
Florida contains five subspecies of the mole skink: Florida Keys, Cedar Key, blue-tailed, peninsula, and northern. The blue-tailed subspecies is already federally threatened, and the USFWS was petitioned in 2012 to list the Florida Keys and Cedar Key subspecies as threatened. An FWC biological status review in 2011 determined that the Florida Keys mole skink warranted listing as state threatened. In 2015, the USFWS provided funds to the University of Central Florida (UCF) to conduct a taxonomic assessment of mole skinks. FWRI assisted UCF by providing genetic samples for microsatellite DNA analysis.