It's new Zealand's rarest reptile and the world's rarest gecko. So rare that, until last week, only three had ever been seen.
For all anyone knew, it was already extinct - until it turned up at a suburban barbecue in the Coromandel.
The moment Pim de Monchy saw the distinctive, wood-brown male lizard on the garden wall, he was "pretty sure" it was a Coromandel Striped Gecko. De Monchy, who was a guest at the party in Coromandel township, is programme manager for DOC's Moehau Kiwi Sanctuary on the peninsula and knew the significance of the find.
With the precious gecko secured in a jar, he excitedly phoned colleague Rob Chappell, the local ranger who was there when the species was discovered in 1997.
"Up until then we didn't even know this thing was on the planet," Chappell says, feeding it in his Coromandel office with cockroaches and tinned cat food.
The first Coromandel Striped Gecko, a handsome, silver-toned male quite different from the brown, almost wood-grained specimens that followed, was found "about 300 yards" from the latest discovery.
Chappell said DOC kept the 1997 lizard in captivity in the hope that a female could be found and a captive breeding programme started.
"But we found none, despite four years of intensive searching. Meanwhile the gecko died of old age."
Another one was later found, but she died, possibly from injuries inflicted by a kingfisher.
DOC then combed the Port Charles area, using pit traps, but it found only a dead one after a call from a member of the public.
That was until last week's find.
Another intensive search will begin this week, but because the Coromandel Striped Gecko has never been observed in its natural habitat, DOC's herpetology advisers can still only guess as to its behaviour and the best places and times to search for it, using its closest known relative, the Stephen's Island Striped Gecko (confined to two islands in the Cook Strait) as a guide.
So little is known about the Coromandel Striped Gecko that scientists are uncertain about its most basic activities - whether it's nocturnal, whether it's arboreal or a ground-dweller, lays eggs or gives birth to live young (a peculiarity of New Zealand lizards which, like our native frogs, are considered anatomically primitive compared with their relatives round the world).
Too few specimens have been found to even confirm it as a distinct species, which means it's living under a borrowed scientific name - Hoplodactylus stephensi var. coromandel, "the Coromandel version of the Stephen's Island striped gecko" - even though it's clear to experts that it is morphologically and genetically distinct from its Stephen's Island cousin.
If a partner cannot be found for Chappell's latest charge, he'll fit the gecko with a tiny transmitter and release him "to take his chances" in a predator-controlled area of bush near where he was found.
The transmitter would last only a couple of weeks, but might divulge more information, Chappell said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/3928184a4560.html
For all anyone knew, it was already extinct - until it turned up at a suburban barbecue in the Coromandel.
The moment Pim de Monchy saw the distinctive, wood-brown male lizard on the garden wall, he was "pretty sure" it was a Coromandel Striped Gecko. De Monchy, who was a guest at the party in Coromandel township, is programme manager for DOC's Moehau Kiwi Sanctuary on the peninsula and knew the significance of the find.
With the precious gecko secured in a jar, he excitedly phoned colleague Rob Chappell, the local ranger who was there when the species was discovered in 1997.
"Up until then we didn't even know this thing was on the planet," Chappell says, feeding it in his Coromandel office with cockroaches and tinned cat food.
The first Coromandel Striped Gecko, a handsome, silver-toned male quite different from the brown, almost wood-grained specimens that followed, was found "about 300 yards" from the latest discovery.
Chappell said DOC kept the 1997 lizard in captivity in the hope that a female could be found and a captive breeding programme started.
"But we found none, despite four years of intensive searching. Meanwhile the gecko died of old age."
Another one was later found, but she died, possibly from injuries inflicted by a kingfisher.
DOC then combed the Port Charles area, using pit traps, but it found only a dead one after a call from a member of the public.
That was until last week's find.
Another intensive search will begin this week, but because the Coromandel Striped Gecko has never been observed in its natural habitat, DOC's herpetology advisers can still only guess as to its behaviour and the best places and times to search for it, using its closest known relative, the Stephen's Island Striped Gecko (confined to two islands in the Cook Strait) as a guide.
So little is known about the Coromandel Striped Gecko that scientists are uncertain about its most basic activities - whether it's nocturnal, whether it's arboreal or a ground-dweller, lays eggs or gives birth to live young (a peculiarity of New Zealand lizards which, like our native frogs, are considered anatomically primitive compared with their relatives round the world).
Too few specimens have been found to even confirm it as a distinct species, which means it's living under a borrowed scientific name - Hoplodactylus stephensi var. coromandel, "the Coromandel version of the Stephen's Island striped gecko" - even though it's clear to experts that it is morphologically and genetically distinct from its Stephen's Island cousin.
If a partner cannot be found for Chappell's latest charge, he'll fit the gecko with a tiny transmitter and release him "to take his chances" in a predator-controlled area of bush near where he was found.
The transmitter would last only a couple of weeks, but might divulge more information, Chappell said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/3928184a4560.html