FWC Staff with the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation will be holding webinars on State listing of the Reef gecko Fri, May 9, 12-1:30 pm. Info on webinars may be found at https://myfwc.com/media/0hphd3f5/flrg-webinar-flyer.pdf

Friday May 9th Teams Meeting. Join

Both of these times are during the workday. The Wednesday webinar overlaps with the FWC Nonnative Species TAG meeing, ensuring minimum participation from the reptile community. 

Written comments may be submitted to Imperiled@MyFWC.com until June 6, 2025.

On May 1, 2024, FWC Commissioners voted to make the Reef gecko a Candidate Species for state listing. This was a final rule vote that was not preceeded by a draft rule vote and period for public input. As of that vote, legal wild collection was immediately ended with no due process or assessment of economic impact by FWC. 

In 2019, Stephanie Clements and Christopher Searcy of University of Miami requested a biological status review by FWC to consider the Reef gecko for state listing. "New scientific evidence indicates that this species may in fact be declining across South Florida, and faces threats from habitat loss and climate change," said Clement and Searcy.

Unfortunately, no protection of habitat is inherent to protections for state listed species. There is no prescribed survey requirement or relocation procedure. State listing will likely result in banning keeping and breeding of this species.

The account on the Reef Gecko in the book "Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida," co-authored by Dr. Kenney Krysko, retired FWC herp biologist Paul Moler, and current FWC herp biologist Kevin Enge, considers this species to be nonnative in Florida. State listing of a nonnative species as "Threatened" would be an unprecedented step for FWC.