Gecko

It is not too much of a problem for New Zealanders to buy an elephant or two to put in a zoo. But perish the thought we might buy or sell a tuatara, a weka, a jewelled gecko or any other native species.

In the past year alone, up to 200 protected and endangered jewelled geckos, worth about $1.8 million on the black market, could have been taken illegally from spots on Otago Peninsula.

Wildlife smugglers are "greedy people without any consideration for animals", Wildlife Enforcement Group senior investigator Stuart Williamson says.

Sixteen stolen jewelled geckos were returned to their homes on Otago Peninsula earlier this year thanks to University of Otago masters student Carey Knox, a finalist in the Coastal Otago Conservation Awards. He talks to Rebecca Fox about his work identifying the threatened species.

In the second week of April, 25 South Island robins from Douglas fir plantations on the flanks of the Silverpeaks were liberated at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary - another milestone for the project, as Neville Peat reports.

A jail sentence handed down to a German visitor who pleaded guilty to possessing New Zealand geckos has been welcomed by the Wildlife Enforcement Group.