Harlequin gecko

The lizard or snake

Harlequin gecko is a lizard or snake in the family Diplodactylidae — Tukutuku rakiurae.

Range and habitat

The preferred habitats of T. Rakiurae are shrubland and wetlands. The species is endemic to Stewart Island / Rakiura in the far south of New Zealand, where it was discovered in 1969.

Stewart Island is overrun with invasive predators such as cats (Felis domesticus) and rats (Rattus rattus, R. Exulans, and R. Norvegicus), that have also contributed to declines among native bird species.

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

In crisis

The harlequin gecko has been assessed as Endangered by the IUCN since 2018, owing to its rarity, small range and declining population. Each generation, that takes about 20 years to mature, appears to have about 30% fewer individuals than the previous generation. Poaching for the international pet trade is another potential threat: although the species has yet to be introduced into the pet trade, it is a known target of poachers acting within Rakiura National Park.

As of 2012 the Department of Conservation (DOC) classified the harlequin gecko as Nationally Vulnerable under the New Zealand Threat Classification System. The species is protected under Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning international import/export is regulated by the CITES permitting system.

Harlequin gecko is 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 Harlequin gecko, Wikidata item Q3008588. 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.