The jewelled gecko's mysterious ways and personality have Carey Knox hooked.
On the verge of giving up study, Mr Knox (28), who was finishing a post-graduate diploma in wildlife management but wanted to stay in Dunedin, took up a research project for Save the Otago Peninsula (Stop) looking at why the jewelled-gecko population was under threat.
"I thought I'd had enough [of study] but my work with geckos motivated me to keep going."
As a result, he launched a masters project on the threatened species and is now looking at doing a PhD researching the genetics of the different populations on the peninsula.
"I got hooked. They're real mysterious . . . the more study I do, the more questions arise."
He is writing up his masters research after spending 160 days in the field over a year collecting photographs and locations of the geckos from about 20 sites on the peninsula.
"It didn't seem like work or study. It was fun. I loved doing it," Mr Knox said.
The markings on the back of each gecko were different, allowing them to be recorded in a "non-invasive" way, he said.
As a result, the distribution and size of populations on the peninsula was becoming clearer.
More than 900 photographs taken by Mr Knox form part of a database the Department of Conservation and Wildlife Enforcement Group has used successfully to return 16 "poached" geckos that would in the past have had to be euthanased.
"This type of repatriation is fairly unique and was only possible due to the work Carey has invested in his research," Doc biodiversity assets programme manager David Agnew said in nominating Mr Knox.
Mr Knox's work represented the greatest body of research conducted on the geckos, he said.
The work focused on finding practical protection measures that could be applied by landowners on private land and contributed to a community management plan for the geckos.
"It is not just the relevance of his work at unravelling the secrets and expanding the techniques and knowledge ... it is his dedication and commitment to this project that makes Carey stand out."
Mr Knox had been keeping an eye out for the repatriated geckos and had so far seen 12 of the 16.
They were showing no ill-effects from the "poaching" experience, behaving the same as the other animals, he said.
