Whose Prints Are Those?

by Noelene Taylor

When I saw unusual tracks in soft mud out west of our trapping zone, near Line 18, I hoped it might be a forest gecko. I looked up all the images I could find of gecko tracks but could only find the marks they left on hard tracking cards. But I did find a wonderful thing — a herpetologist called Dr Dylan van Winkle who loves all things reptilian and froggy. He looked at my photos and decided, sadly for me, that it was a rat that made the tracks, after all. 

Here’s his analysis;

• There looks to be a heel shape in the prints or a slightly elongated hind print. Lizard hands and feet are mostly all the same size and there is no elongated heel, whereas the hind feet of rodents are much longer than the hands.
• The tail drag is straight. Geckos walk using a side-to-side motion and their tails undulate behind them as they move forward. Some skinks will leave relative straight tail drag marks, but the footprints are inconsistent with a skink. I have seen straight tail drag marks left by rodents in tracking tunnels on many occasions.
• Finally, the mud is not substrate that I would expect NZ geckos or skinks to typically move through. Rodents, however, freely move through mud while dispersing or foraging. While not impossible that a gecko or skink may occasionally move over mud, I think there is enough evidence to suggest that the prints are rodent rather than lizard.

He said he would expect several species of native lizards in our area of Kaimai-Mamaku but he’s not aware of records of them and would love to know if we see them. He thinks there are probably heaps of Hochstetter’s frogs. So, we have to wait for eye witness or photographic proof to confirm native lizards in our bush. A good reason to keep a close eye out for the little creatures in the bush, not just the birds.