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Angair member Mike Phelan has a welcome reptilian visitor at his Anglesea property: a Southern Marbled Gecko, Christinus marmoratus. This little gecko with its characteristic large fingers and toe pads is not common here with only half a dozen recorded sightings in the Surf Coast although it is a regular inhabitant of Melbourne’s suburbs.

Southern Marbled Gecko

Southern Marbled Gecko

The Marbled Gecko mates in late summer and early autumn and lays hard-shelled eggs unlike other gecko species. It stores its fat in its tail which it can shed when alarmed although it takes months to regrow.

Australia’s most southerly gecko, the Marbled Gecko is found from southern NSW to Western Australia. A member of the Gekkonidae family, it has had several changes of identity since it was first formally described in 1845. It was finally put into the Christinus genus in 1984.

Ann Feilding