Guest Author - Peyton Creadick

Sure, you may have heard about the Dodo bird, the Ibex (extinct in 2000), Stellar’s Sea Cow (a relative of the manatee), and especially the Tasmanian Tiger (my favorite), but when was the last time you heard about extinct reptiles or amphibians? No, I don’t mean the dinosaurs! We all know about those. I mean present day reptiles and amphibians brought to extinction by habitat destruction, introduction of non-indigenous species, hunting by man, etc. Can’t remember? Well, that’s about to change!

In this series of articles, I will be introducing various reptiles and amphibians that have become extinct in the last 300 years. The first reptile in our series is Phelsuma gigas also known as the Rodrigues Giant Day Gecko which inhabited Rodrigues and surrounding isles such as Fregate.

P. gigas is said to have been the largest day gecko with a thick grey to grey-brown body and irregular black spotting. This gecko’s tail, on the other hand, was dark grey with striping. Its belly was light yellow, and it’s tongue was pink. This gecko was last collected in 1842 and no known specimens exist (alive or dead) among the scientific community. Interestingly enough, P. gigas is also said to have been nocturnal and to have reached a size of 2 feet (38cm) or more in length! What an impressive lizard.

Unfortunately, little other information is available on this, the largest of the Phelsuma species. It is said to have become extinct due to habitat destruction. Another of the Phelsuma species in a similar situation is the Round Island Day Gecko (p. guentheri). Males can reach around 30cm but often don’t achieve this size.

The introduction of non-indigenous species such as cats resulted in Round Island Day Gecko ceasing to occur on the islands of Mauritius and Reunion. This gecko is CITES Appendix II according to the CITES website. Multiple sources on the net indicate it is Cites I. It’s possible this animal was upgraded recently. This would be excellent news since to date, the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust Zoo in England has had been one of the few to have success in breeding this gecko species.

Many other Phelsuma species are also CITES II. Habitat destruction is reducing numbers for reptiles and amphibians all over the world. In the coming weeks, we will take a look at the Palestinian Painted Frog, the Golden Toad, the Yunnan Lake Newt, the Cape Verde Giant Skink, the Jamaican Giant Galliwasp, the Yunnan Box Turtle, and several others. I hope you enjoy the series and the brief looks into these incredible but extinct reptiles and amphibians.