Liberec Zoo is proud of babies of the endangered Madagascan flat-tailed gecko, Henkel's gecko, which is an arboreal species of gecko that grows up to 30 centimeters. In Europe, including Liberec, they have been bred in four of the 23 institutions involved in the conservation program over the past year. Liberec zoologist Petra Hnidová reported this in a press release.
"We already have four babies from the first two clutches and three more clutches of two eggs each are being incubated. If visitors are lucky, they will be able to see the hatching of the small flat-tailed geckos with their own eyes, because incubation takes place right inside their exhibit," said Hnidová. If all ten individuals can be bred, she said, it will be a huge benefit for internationally coordinated breeding. "Because the population of this species kept in human care in European zoos currently numbers only 72 animals," she added.
Liberec Zoo has only been intensively involved in breeding endangered reptiles and amphibians for a few years, but the successful breeding of Henkel's flat-tailed geckos is not an isolated event. "Another significant addition among tropical geckos is the blue gecko, which is one of the smallest and most endangered geckos," said the zoo's spokeswoman Barbara Tesařová. According to her, it probably only lives in the wild in two remaining locations in Tanzania, where its population is constantly decreasing due to illegal hunting and habitat destruction. "Coordinated breeding in zoos can therefore be absolutely essential for saving this species from complete extinction," said the spokeswoman.
Liberec Zoo is also successful in breeding the rainbow agama (Agama picticauda) whose breeding has not been very successful in zoos in recent years. "There is huge interest among breeders in the six Liberec cubs," added Tesařová.
Liberec Zoo has also recorded breeding successes with tropical frogs, having bred 78 endangered Golden poison frogs in the past year. "Our frogs will soon travel to, for example, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, but also to the zoo in Ostrava. However, even such a large number of cubs cannot satisfy the demand and a few institutions have had to remain on the waiting list," added Hnidová.
According to her, also waiting for transport are reared amazon milk frogs, yellow-banded and blue poison frogs. Liberec Zoo is also successfully acquiring new species. The latest addition is the green basilisk, a tropical lizard from Central America. It has been in the tropical pavilion since the beginning of this week. It grows up to 25 centimeters in length and, thanks to its ability to run short distances even on the surface of the water, it is nicknamed the Jesus lizard.
Another species will also be added to the ZooExpo pavilion by the beginning of the summer holiday, where there is a special exhibition of tropical frogs and lizards. Zoologists are currently creating a paludarium for endangered Chinese crocodile lizards there.
