This flat-bodied South African gecko was a ‘lost’ species. It’s been found again after 34 years

By Gerald Imray

Researchers who were dropped off by helicopter in a largely inaccessible and remote canyon in South Africa say they have discovered a type of gecko that hadn’t been seen in more than 30 years and was thought to be extinct — or maybe to have never existed at all.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust said Wednesday that two of their researchers had found specimens of the Blyde Rondavel flat gecko, which was first identified in the same canyon in Mpumalanga Province in northeastern South Africa in 1991 only to not be seen again.

Mystery surrounded the little lizard over the next three decades — was it extinct or were the two male specimens originally found actually just juveniles from another gecko species, as some suggested?

Researchers Darren Pietersen and John Davies returned to the same site last month determined to find the Blyde Rondavel flat gecko again and solve the conservation