Rare Gecko Find At Maungatautari Ecological Island

Reptile experts throughout New Zealand are excited by the discovery of a dead rare Duvaucel gecko within the pest proof fence at the Waikato’s Maungatautari Ecological Island.

This threatened species has been presumed extinct on the mainland for close to a century so this find could lead to ecologists proving there are until-now undiscovered populations surviving outside of the few offshore islands where they are protected through isolation.

If follow-up surveys show there are other individual Duvaucel geckos nearby, that would indicate protection of area through pest-proof fencing is a way to ensure relict populations can regain a foothold again.

The Maungatautari Ecological Island is an internationally unique 3400 hectare forested pest-proof fenced mountain in the Waikato between Te Awamutu and Cambridge.

Maungatautari Trust ecologist Chris Smuts-Kennedy says the tall, dense, old-growth Maungatautari forest habitat, with many refuges, might have provided sufficient escape cover for the lizards to avoid extinction via rat predation.

“This is like a message from the mountain that what we’re doing is really starting to work. The removal of pests is allowing species that have been hunkered down on the edge of extinction for centuries to finally emerge again. It’s been like a war-time resistance movement, and now liberation has come and they can come out and celebrate in the street.”

Smuts-Kennedy identified the find as a Duvaucel’s gecko, or something very similar, and notified lizard experts straight away. They will now be involved in future investigations.

The Duvaucel is New Zealand’s largest living lizard species at 32cm long and weighing as much as a tui or myna.

Smuts-Kennedy says fossils indicate at one time Duvaucel geckos were widespread throughout both main islands of New Zealand but the species is now found only on a small number of protected offshore island sanctuaries.

“It is possible that this could represent a surviving relict population on the mountain. DNA work is needed to see if it does represent a distinct population from those known on protected islands and that it is indeed a Duvaucel’s gecko, and not a new species perhaps related to them. But we won’t know soon as this work is prolonged and expensive.”

The Maungatautari Ecological Island project is a community vision to remove all introduced mammalian pests and restore the forest to a diversity of plants and animals not seen in this life time.

This discovery has come on top of the most successful bird breeding season so far at the fenced ecological sanctuary. Six kiwi chicks were hatched with their weight gains considered exceptional, indicating kiwi food species are also increasing following the removal of pests. Introduced takahe, kaka, hihi (stitchbird), and popokatea (whitehead) have all bred on the mountain for the first time this year adding to the array of resident breeding birds already there.

Smuts-Kennedy says the rebuilding of the native wildlife community has only just begun.

“Over the next few years we’ll be reintroducing many more bird, reptile and invertebrate species, and perhaps a second bat species.

“It’s a wonderful surprise when a species that’s on our provisional reintroductions ‘shopping list’ like Duvaucel’s gecko, actually pops up to tell us it’s perhaps already here.