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Rhacodactylus trachyrhynchus trachyrhynchus
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Rhacodactylus trachyrhynchus trachycephalus
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Geographic Range:
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The Rough-snouted gecko (Rhacodactylus trachyrhynchus) is a species of gecko found in central and southern New Caledonia and on an outlying New Caledonian island of Ile de Pines. |
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Relatively little is known about the Rough-Snouted Gecko natural history. It has a scattered distribution in primary forest in central and southern Grande Terre. New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre ('Big Land'), is an off-centre streak of dirt and nickel parked in a turquoise sea, like the arm of a clock stopped eternally at 10 am. Unlike its near neighbors, Vanuatu and the Solomons, which are composed of scores of islands, New Caledonia has comparatively few. What you see - Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, Ile des Pins, the tiny Iles Belep and a few scattered reefs and volcanic islets - is what you get. The dry land in New Caledonia is slightly larger than Wales, a little smaller than the US state of New Jersey. Grande Terre is divided by a central mountain range, with foggy, dense, wet forests high up and a lush, wild east coast that's seen less European settlement than the west. The west lies in a rain shadow and is consequently much drier, and its windy coastal plains have suffered the worst depredations of the mining and grazing industries. Around 80% of New Caledonia has been cleared of its original forest cover to make way for mining and grazing, and a lot of subsistence agriculture is rolling over for larger-scale export crops such as avocados, rice, oranges and pineapples. |
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