On Rábida Island in the Galápagos, where red-tinged beaches meet ancient lava formations, Mares’s leaf-toed gecko (Phyllodactylus maresi) is back. Once thought extinct on this island, a genetically distinct population has survived here against all odds, scientists have now confirmed. For more than a century, despite intensive collecting efforts across the Galápagos, no living specimen of P. maresi had been recorded on Rábida. The only evidence of their historical presence came from ancient subfossil bones dating back 5,700 to 8,540 years. The cause of their downfall? Rats. Invasive brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), most likely brought by pirates or whalers in the 17th or 18th centuries, spread and created an ecological nightmare for native species. These new predators devoured gecko eggs, disrupted nesting sites, and disturbed the island’s delicate ecosystem balance. Native species either disappeared or retreated to precarious refugia. However, in 2011, conservationists came in for the kill. Galápagos National Park, in partnership with NGOs Island Conservation, the Charles Darwin Foundation and The Raptor Center, launched a precision rodent eradication program targeting every invasive rat on Rábida Island. Teams deployed poisoned bait, specifically for rats, across the island while carefully protecting native wildlife, said Island Conservation. The eradication had to be complete; leaving even a few breeding pairs would allow the rat population to recover within months. Mares’s leaf-toed gecko (Phyllodactylus maresi) made a comeback on Rábida Island after rat eradication. Photo courtesy of Rory Stansbury/IslandConservation With the rats out of the way, the ecological response was swift and dramatic.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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