New Caledonian Crested Gecko
Overview
Gecko
Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....
native to southern New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
. This species was thought extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
until it was rediscovered in 1994. Along with several other Rhacodactylus
Rhacodactylus
Rhacodactylus is a genus of medium to large geckos of the subfamily Diplodactylinae. All species in this genus are found on the islands that make up New Caledonia....
species, it is being considered for protected status by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.
