Description:

A large species of gecko growing to a body length of 100mm, with a prehensile tail approximately as long as its body; moderately broad toes; enlarged rugose scales on the snout; and a colour pattern that is a mosaic of patches of grey-green, whites, and browns of varying hues. It has a live-bearing mode of reproduction, a feature which is otherwise not found in geckos outside of New Zealand.

Natural distribution:

Ile des Pins region, Sud and Center of Grande Terre.

Distribution within Province Sud: Recorded Ile des Pins and a single offshore islet.

Habitat:

humid forest.

Threats:

• extremely high level of threat to insular populations (Isle of Pines and surrounding islets) posed by collection for illegal trade.

• extremely high level of threat to coastal humid forest on Ile des Pins through loss, modification and fragmentation of forest habitat.

• potentially high level of threat to populations in humid forest with high infestation levels of the introduced Little Red Fire Ant (Wasmannia auropunctata), resulting in a significant decline in abundance, particularly on offshore island populations.

• potentially high level of threat from exotic pests such as rats and cats (predation of adults, young & eggs) in heavily affected forests, particularly on offshore island populations.

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

The species distribution is extremely small and consists only of two isolated and highly vulnerable sub-populations, one of which is sufficiently small it could be exterminated by catastrophic events or the introduction of invasive species or disease. The range of existing and potentially high level threats identified above in combination with the specialised biology of the giant geckos in the genus Rhacodactylus, indicate Rhacodactylus trachycephalus conservatively satisfies the criteria to be categorised as Critically Endangered.