Reptiles
Crested Gecko
Correlophus ciliatus · also called crested gecko, eyelash gecko, New Caledonian crested gecko
The crested gecko is a small, soft-spined, fruit-eating lizard from New Caledonia that spent over a century listed as extinct. Rediscovered in 1994, it went from lost species to global pet-shop staple in about twenty years — even as the wild population continues to slip.
Overview
Crested geckos live only in the humid rainforest of southern New Caledonia and the Isle of Pines, in the shrub layer and lower canopy. They are nocturnal, omnivorous — lapping up soft fruit, nectar, and pollen and catching insects — and named for the row of fringed, eyelash-like skin spines running from over each eye down the back.
Sticky, and one-shot on the tail
Its toe pads (and a pad on the tail tip) are covered in millions of microscopic hairs that let it walk up glass and hang upside down. Unusually for a gecko, it can drop its tail to escape a predator but cannot regrow it — most wild and captive adults are permanently tailless, and manage perfectly well.
Lost, then everywhere
Described in 1866, then not seen for over a century and presumed extinct, the crested gecko was rediscovered in 1994. A small number were exported before New Caledonia closed its wildlife trade, and essentially every pet crested gecko today descends from that founding group.
A popular pet
Small, calm, evening-active, needing no UVB or high heat, and thriving on a powdered fruit-and-insect diet with no live insects required, it is one of the most kept pet reptiles in the world, bred into many colour “morphs.”
Status
Despite millions in captivity (a genetically narrow group of no conservation value), the wild crested gecko is Vulnerable and declining — its rainforest is being cleared, and the invasive little fire ant attacks and displaces the geckos across parts of its small range.
Crested Gecko: common questions
Is it true the crested gecko was thought to be extinct?
Yes. The species was first described from New Caledonia in 1866, and then for well over a hundred years no one recorded another one. It was widely assumed to be extinct — a casualty of the deforestation and introduced predators that have hit so much of New Caledonia's wildlife. In 1994, following a tropical storm, it was rediscovered, and small numbers were legally exported to Europe and the United States before New Caledonia banned the export of its native wildlife. Essentially every pet crested gecko in the world today descends from that founding stock, and the species went from "extinct" to one of the most abundant captive reptiles on Earth within about two decades.
Why can't a crested gecko regrow its tail?
Most geckos can drop the tail as a decoy when attacked (autotomy) and then regenerate a replacement, usually a shorter, blunter one supported by cartilage. The crested gecko keeps the drop-the-tail defence but has lost the ability to regrow it. Once a crested gecko has "fired" its tail, it is tailless for life. This does not seem to harm the animal much — wild adults are very often tailless, they balance and climb fine without it (the sticky pad on the tail tip is a bonus rather than essential), and it has no effect on health or breeding. Owners simply need to know that a tail loss is permanent and to handle the gecko gently.
Why are crested geckos such popular pets?
They tick almost every box for an easy reptile. They stay small, are calm and tolerate gentle handling, are active in the evening when people are home, do not need UVB lighting or high heat (room temperature is usually fine), and — crucially — thrive on a simple commercial powdered diet mixed with water, so no live insects are strictly required. They breed readily, and decades of captive breeding have produced a huge range of colours and patterns ("morphs"). All of this makes them a common first reptile. The main care points are adequate vertical space to climb, moderate humidity, and not housing two males together.
If there are millions in captivity, why is the wild one Vulnerable?
The captive population is genetically narrow (descended from a small founding group) and has no conservation value for the wild species, which faces its own pressures on its small New Caledonian range. Its rainforest habitat is being cleared and fragmented by logging, mining, agriculture, and fire, and — a specific and serious threat — the invasive little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) has spread through parts of its range, attacking and killing geckos and their eggs and driving them out of infested forest. So a species can be simultaneously superabundant in terrariums worldwide and genuinely at risk in the one place it actually lives.