Forest Gecko

Fascinating facts about the Forest Gecko

• A 1845 paper by John Edward Gray introduced the forest gecko to science, naming it after the grainy texture of its skin – a reminder that even 180-year-old taxonomy can be reshaped by new data. In 2011 DNA work moved it into the newly created genus Mokopirirakau, making it the type species and showing how modern genetics rewrites our understanding of old names.
• When you spot one of these lizards, you’re looking at a creature only 70–85 mm long from snout to vent, though some individuals stretch to 98 mm – about the length of a standard pen. Their ability to shift colour to match bark lets them disappear, highlighting nature’s own camouflage tricks.
• These geckos can be found from sea level up to 1500 m, occasionally on rocky outcrops above the tree line.
• Unlike many reptiles that lay eggs, forest geckos give birth to live young after mating in autumn and delivering in late summer.
• In June 2010, a single wildlife park lost seven forest geckos – four females and three males – to theft, a loss that underscores how vulnerable small, protected populations are to human actions and why strict protection matters.

At a glance

About the Forest Gecko

The forest gecko (Mokopirirakau granulatus) clings to the bark of New Zealand's native trees, its brown-grey back mottled with bright W-shaped splotches that mimic the lichens and mosses of its arboreal world. In the southern reaches of its range the skin can blaze with reds and oranges, and the animal can shift its hue in seconds to match the shifting light of the canopy. Measuring 70–85 mm from snout to vent, with some individuals reaching 98 mm, it sports a yellow-tinged mouth and white scales at the lip edge, features that set it apart from the Pacific gecko. Its yellow foot pads, slightly shorter in northern populations, allow it to sprint across trunks and even the slender branches of mānuka and kānuka. By night it hunts insects, nectar, tiny fruits and the honeydew of scale insects, while in daylight it will sun-bask on a branch, a rare diurnal pause for a nocturnal reptile. When threatened it opens its mouth and emits a high-pitched squeal, a startling alarm that echoes through the forest understory, hinting at a complex communication system yet to be fully understood. From the Bay of Islands down to Taranaki in the North Island, and from Marlborough to the Ōkārito Lagoon on the South Island, the forest gecko occupies a broad swath of forest and scrub, from sea level to the tree line and, on rare occasions, perched on creviced rock as high as 1,500 m. It prefers the sturdy trunks and larger branches of mature trees, yet in the north it also frequents the delicate shoots of mānuka and kānuka, demonstrating a remarkable adaptability to both dense forest and open scrub habitats. Viviparous and timing its reproductive cycle to the seasons, it mates in autumn and gives birth in late summer, ensuring that the newborns emerge when insect prey is abundant. This blend of camouflage, colour change, and a surprisingly vocal defence makes the forest gecko a subtle yet charismatic thread in New Zealand’s ecological tapestry, a reminder that even the most…

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