Small forested stream. In log. Woo! Such an honour to find one of these beautiful animals! Accidentally disturbed while climbing over the log it was in and it fell out.
Note: The animal was not handled or affected in any way. Was just taken photos of then left alone.
Muriwai gecko (Woodworthia "Muriwai")
Captured as part of a monitoring project. Tail was autotomised pre-capture (I.e. not a result of the capture process).
On fence at Bushy Park. Possibly the same individual photographed nearby a year ago!
This gecko wandered in front of me and posed for photos which was a buzz as he gave me time to get my camera out and take photos moving around him.
I did not realise how special this gecko is until I got home and looked him up.
One of the rarest and most sort after of geckos who only lives north of Whangaroa and I confirm that the place where this photo was taken is north of Whangaroa as poachers will go after them if I narrow the place down. In fact in 2001 a German tourist was fined $12,000 for attempting to smuggle Northland green geckos out of the country in his underwear. Should have fined him $120,000 and jailed him grrrr.
The first photo is a close up of the head as you can see clearly that this gecko is shedding its skin. The second photo shows the shed skin of the tail.
What an honour to be able to get these photos :D
One of two we found without searching in the long grass on a rocky outcrop surrounded by native plantings.
Current name is Oligosoma off infrpunctatum 'Hawkes Bay'. In pitfall