Crested geckos saved from extinction | with Rob Pilley from Rob's Wild Adventures

There are thousands of reasons why reptile keeping is so awesome, but one reason we love it so much is because we’re always learning new things.

If it wasn’t for private keepers leading the way we wouldn’t know half of what we do today about reptile keeping, breeding, welfare and husbandry.

Rob Pilley from Rob's Wild Adventures explains how crested geckos are just one example of private keepers doing heroic work to further our knowledge about reptiles. It’s fair to say that private keepers probably saved the crested gecko from extinction.

Great work, reptile keepers!

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SCRIPT

Everyone loves crested geckos, but did you know they were once thought to be extinct?

Cresties come from New Caledonia, a small group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

The species was officially discovered by scientists in 1866, but when nobody saw another crestie in the next 100 years or so, everyone assumed this beautiful gecko had died out and gone extinct.

Most people blamed the crested gecko's demise on introduced rats and a particularly nasty species of ant called an electric ant. But then, in 1994, a group of herpetologists visited New Caledonia after a raging storm had battered the islands. And there, they found a handful of crested geckos that had been blown down from their hiding place in the trees.

One of those lucky herpetologists collected a small number of geckos and took them back to the USA, where a few talented reptile keepers were able to breed them.

Today, crested geckos are considered easy to keep and breed, and they're one of the most popular reptile pets in the world, bringing joy to millions of people.

The electric ant is still causing problems for crested geckos in New Caledonia, and their wild populations are thought to be falling each year as a result. So it's still quite possible that cresties could still become extinct in the wild.

Thank goodness these wonderful lizards are being bred in such huge numbers by private keepers, essentially saving this species from extinction.

This amazing story is just one example of the pioneering work done by private keepers and their reptile-breeding breakthroughs.

Great work, reptile keepers.

I'm Rob Pilley from Rob's Wild Adventures, and this is Responsible Reptile Keeping.

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