The jewelled gecko — moko kakariki — reached the museum in December 2016 via a colourful and circuitous route, and now lives there in a purpose-built terrarium.
The male gecko had been poached from the Otago Peninsula about 2010, smuggled into Germany and later sent back to New Zealand, after being recognised on Facebook in 2013 by Dunedin herpetologist Carey Knox, using a photo he had taken earlier.
Manawa is believed to be the first endemic wild animal poached from this country to be successfully repatriated.
Museum living environments officer Dr Anthony Stumbo said Manawa started losing function in one of his hind legs in December, possibly due to a sprain.
"We worked with an expert from the university and a local vet, and he had started to recover."
However, he shed his outer skin soon after and the stress of this further exacerbated the injury.
He was taken to the Wildlife Hospital, Dunedin, at Otago Polytechnic.
"They kindly took care of him, and started him on anti-inflammatories.
He still on the medication, but he is recovering well, and is very active in his enclosure," Mr Stumbo said.
