Student may get geckos home

The bright yellow markings on 16 stolen Otago Peninsula jewelled geckos may help the Department...
The bright yellow markings on 16 stolen Otago Peninsula jewelled geckos may help the Department of Conservation return them to their original homes. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
University of Otago wildlife management masters student Carey Knox hopes he has the answer to an unusual problem facing the Department of Conservation - how to get 16 stolen jewelled geckos, estimated to be worth $192,000, back to their original homes on the Otago Peninsula.

The geckos, a threatened species, were found in Christchurch on Sunday in the possession of 55-year-old Manfred Walter Bachmann, a German resident in Kampala, Uganda, who pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court on Monday to two charges under the Wildlife Act.

Two other men, Thomas Benjamin Price (31), a stockbroker from Gallen, Switzerland, travelling on a United States passport, and Gustavo Eduardo Toledo-Albarran (28), a chef from Carranza, Mexico, living in Spain, appeared in the Christchurch court on similar charges yesterday but have not yet pleaded.

All have been remanded in custody, Bachmann until March 3 for sentencing and the other two until today.

The 16 geckos, including nine pregnant females, are believed to be in good health and are being looked after by Doc, which would eventually like to return them to their original homes.

And that is where Mr Knox believes he might be able to help.

He has spent the past year counting the peninsula's geckos and has so far seen more than 700.

But, more importantly, he has photographed all the geckos he has counted.

Each bright green gecko has a unique pattern of yellow markings on its back, which allows Mr Knox to distinguish between the geckos he has seen and ones he has not.

"Basically, I go around each site and do a search and photograph every individual I find and, based on the patterns, I can recognise different individuals."

And chances are, he hopes, he has photographs of each of the 16 stolen geckos and, from his records, will be able to tell where they came from.

"If I saw a photo of these individuals that have been taken, I'm quite confident I'd be able to identify them."

Doc coastal Otago area manager Robin Thomas says the 16 geckos will be kept in quarantine to ensure that if they go back to the peninsula they will not cause health problems for other geckos.

"If they have been exposed to other animals, other geckos, or even geckos from other populations in that area, then there could be a potential risk of pathogens or disease being introduced."

Once cleared of being a disease risk, the geckos ideally would go back to where they came from to maintain the existing genetics of each population, Mr Thomas said.

Animals returned to their home territory were "more comfortable" and less likely to be at risk from predators as they tried to find their way home from unfamiliar territory.

mark.price@odt.co.nz

 

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