NEWS112
36
100%. In the terrarium these reptiles attain
sexual maturity at an age of around four
months, so if necessary it is possible to
produce threegenerationsperyear.
At the rate of a clutch per female every six
weeks that equates to around 620
youngsters,andaclutchevery fourweeks to
around 860. In practice, however, it isn't
possible to sell such large numbers.
Moreover in theory, given sufficient space,
withno femalesbeingsold,andwitharound
half of theyoungbeing female, then sucha
starter group couldproducebetween1,400
(six-weeklyclutches) and5,500 (four-weekly
clutches) juveniles per year. In other words,
every reproductively-capable female, along
withher offspring and their offspring, could
achieve a 25-times to 48-times increase in
theoriginalpopulation inasingleyear.
This enormously high reproductive rate is
necessary for such small creatures, which
occupyapositiona longwaydown the food
chain, to compensate for high losses in the
wild. And that means that under normal
circumstances the collection of wild
specimens of these small reptiles for the
terrarium hobby has no noteworthy effect
on the overall population, as long as the
habitat remainsotherwiseundisturbed.
Even though the wild population of
Lygodactyluswilliamsi
can tolerate a certain
amountofcollectionpressurewithoutharm,
such collecting is undesirable. In the first
place the collectors often aren't exactly
careful about how they obtain the geckos
and destroy the home tree in the process,
and secondly the designation of the
protected zones would be rendered
meaningless.They represent a very species-
rich habitat, extremely deserving of
protection and conservation, and every
effort to retain this habitat requires our
unreserved support! The Turquoise Dwarf
Gecko is, after all, just one of numerous
species thatoccur there.
CantheWashingtonConventionhelp?
The
Washington
Convention
on
International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) regulates the international trade in
specially protected animal species. These
species are not necessarily rare or
endangered,but intheviewofsomeexperts
they could be if collected and traded in
excessive numbers. As a rule the concern
isn't somuch the trade in live animals but
mainlythat inanimalproducts (leather,pelts,
ivory,evencompletecorpsesas inthecaseof
seahorses, tigers, etc). Even so live terrarium
animalsarealsoaffected.
Thereare two importantcategories,detailed
in listsofspecies,theso-calledappendicesto
the Washington Convention. Appendix 1
contains species that are deemed to be so
endangered that the trade in wild-caught
specimens is banned, without exception.
Only captive-bred specimens from the
secondgenerationonmaybe traded freely,
as long as they are accompanied by the
legally-requiredpaperworktoprovetheyare
captive-bred fromthesecondorsubsequent
generations. The majority of species,
however, are included in Appendix 2. In
principletheycanbetraded,butthisrequires
anexport permit from the countryof origin
and an import permit from the recipient
country.Scientists arenow campaigning for
theTurquoiseDwarfGeckotobe included in
theWashingtonConvention inordertoputa
stop to the illegal trade in thesecreatures.
The Washington Convention has proved
effective in some cases.There are, however,
many critics of theWashingtonConvention
In terms of its scalation
Lygodactylus williamsi
resembles the species
L. picturatus
and hence was
originallydescribedas a subspeciesof
L.picturatus.
