Extinct in the Wild
Lepidodactylus listeri
Lepidodactylus listeri
Lepidodactylus listeri is a gecko in the family Gekkonidae, recorded as Extinct in the Wild and tied to Christmas Island.
Appearance
Lister's gecko is a brown lizard growing to a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of 5 cm (2.0 in). It has a broad, pale fawn/grey vertebral stripe that expands to cover the top of the head and matches the colour and pattern of the tail. The body is covered with small, smooth scales.
Range and habitat
L. Listeri was endemic to Christmas Island. L. Listeri was most abundant in primary rainforest on the plateau, but also occurred in disturbed secondary forest growth. It was absent from mined areas on the island.
Lepidodactylus listeri, also known commonly as Lister's gecko and the Christmas Island chained gecko, is a lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species was endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
L. Listeri is nocturnal and arboreal.
In crisis
Prior to the extirpation of this species from Christmas Island, 43 individuals were taken into captivity, starting in August 2009, in order to establish a breeding population. This proved successful with a total population of over 1,500 individuals as of July 2022. Even so, reintroduction is unlikely to occur in the near future.
Invasive threats are not yet controlled on Christmas Island, and assisted colonization is not yet feasible due to widespread gecko L. Lugubris, that has an unknown conservation status.
Lepidodactylus listeri is Extinct in the Wild on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Lepidodactylus listeri, Wikidata item Q924069. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
