Take a good look at this beautiful golden-tailed gecko (strophurus taenicauda)! The namesake of my business (see About) is endemic to Australia. It has been on my bucket list to see one in nature ever since I first saw it in “Geckos of Australia”. There are other species in the genus strophurus that are also pretty, but this one is my favourite.
It does not live on the coast, so in order to find one, we had to drive inland a bit. I studied the Atlas of Living Australia beforehand to see where it lives. Lake Broadwater Conservation Park offered recent sightings and a campsite with facilities (in the middle of nowhere). Turned out, it was perfect. The campsite is run by a very friendly couple (Megan and Tim) who are also interested in wildlife. They told us that a friend of theirs had spotted the gecko a week earlier and gave us directions.
Strophurus taenicauda is nocturnal, so we went out at night after scouting out White Cypress trees during the day. Apparently, the golden-tailed gecko prefers such trees according to this publication. Equipped with improvised headlamps for detecting eyeshine, we searched cypress trees until our eyes were bloodshot. Unfortunately to no avail. The second night, we were about to resign, determined to come back to Lake Broadwater at some point. But there was a group of students close to where we were looking that were also scanning the bush for reptiles. I walked up to them and asked…
And yes! They had seen two golden-tailed geckos and took us to the spots. Luckily, the geckos were still there 🙂
A nice conclusion to a nightly adventure that brought you the picture above!