Rhacodactylus trachycephalus

Appearance

R. Trachycephalus has a body length of around 10 centimetres (3.9 in) and a snout-to-vent length of no more than 14 centimetres (5.5 in), with its tail being roughly the same length as its body. The species' scales create a mosaic pattern, with patches of white, brown, grey, and green in various hues. In addition, R. Trachycephalus has fewer scale rows on its midbody, as well as fewer scales in the area in between its eyes and nostrils. The scales that are in the eye-nostril area are also smaller than those on R. Trachyrhynchus.

Range and habitat

In regions where Rhacodactylus trachycephalus coexists with Rhacodactylus leachianus, the two species exhibit vertical habitat partitioning. R. Trachycephalus tends to occupy lower forest strata, while R. Leachianus is more commonly found in the higher canopy. This behavior minimizes interspecific competition by allowing each species to exploit different vertical niches within the same forest habitat.

Rhacodactylus trachycephalus, called the lesser rough-snouted giant gecko, dwarf rough-snouted giant gecko, or tough-snouted giant gecko, is a gecko endemic to two small areas of islands in New Caledonia. The species' range is extremely restricted. It only occurs on a small area of Isle of Pines and a small island off its shore, in humid forest habitats.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

In crisis

Its restricted humid forest habitat is vulnerable due to multiple threats. As a result of habitat reduction, low reproduction rate and small population, it is one of the rarest geckos in the world. The offshore island is small enough that its population could be completely destroyed in the event of a single disaster and both of these populations are extremely vulnerable.

R. Trachycephalus is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and Endemia.nc, and it is protected in the Northern Province. The organism is threatened by illegal trade and fragmentation of habitat.

Rhacodactylus trachycephalus is Critically Endangered 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 Rhacodactylus trachycephalus, Wikidata item Q3429034. 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.