Spotlight on trafficked herps: Uroplatus fiera

Many species of herps are trafficked — that is, they are in captivity only in virtue of some combination of the following:

Smuggling: removing a living thing from its range state without permission from the relevant authority.

Laundering: misidentifying a living thing as to species or origin (place of origin; also whether wild collected or captive bred) in order to acquire permits or other legal requirements to transport or sell it.

Other less clearly categorized elements of trafficking such as marketing and selling of smuggled and/or laundered species or offspring of such species, and promulgating disinformation about these species as to their origin or identification.  

Some species are relatively easy to determine to be trafficked.  For example, if you see a captive specimen of herp endemic to Australia, you can be 99% certain that it or its progenitors were trafficked, since Australia doesn’t export herps for commercial purposes (with about a half dozen isolated exceptions that have yet to include any gecko or bearded dragon species).

Others are harder to determine.  One that is a bit of a complex case is Uroplatus fiera.  This species was first described in 2015; before that, it was considered to be just another example of Uroplatus ebenaui.  U. ebenaui is exported in large numbers from Madagascar (the country to which both these species are endemic), and at least before 2015 could have reasonably been expected to have some U. fiera included in those exports. (Since its scientific description, Uroplatus fiera has never been permitted for export.)

But after 2015, the two species could be distinguished.  Uroplatus fiera grows a bit larger, but more vividly has a completely different color skin on the inside of of its wouth: U. fiera has a typical pink mouth lining, but the mouth of U. ebenaui is jet black inside (there are numerous other differences in scale and lamellae count and hemipene morphology, but the oral color is easy to see at a glance).  

Also, it turns out that the ranges of the two species are different as well.  Uroplatus ebenaui lives in the west and north of the island, in dry lowland forests; U. fiera lives on the east side of the island at intermediate altitudes, and the two ranges are separated by highlands.

These factors — that the two species are easily distinguished by anyone sorting animals for export, and that the range of fiera is well away from that of ebenaui — makes any confusion between the two completely avoidable.  Specimens of Uroplatus fiera currently exported as U. ebenaui are undoubtedly being intentionally laundered.  Importers bringing these mixed ebenaui/fiera shipments into the US are supporting this laundering through their purchases, and are directly and actively undermining conservation of this species.  At this point in time, there’s no reason at all to import wild collected U. ebenaui into the US, as they’re being bred here, and imported from Europe and Ukraine, in sufficient numbers to support hobby demand.

Without documented evidence that a given Uroplatus fiera being offered is derived from animals imported prior to 2015, all U. fiera should be rejected for purchase, as should all wild collected U. ebenaui, which are supporting the laundering of U. fiera.


Gehring, Philip-Sebastian, 2020.  Leaf-Tailed Geckos — the Complete Uroplatus.  Edition Chimaira.

Ratsoavina, Fanomezana & RANJANAHARISOA, FIADANANTSOA & Glaw, Frank & Raselimanana, Achille Philippe & Miralles, Aurélien & Vences, Miguel. (2015). A new leaf-tailed gecko of the Uroplatus ebenaui group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Madagascar's central eastern rainforests. Zootaxa. 4006. 143-160. 10.11646/zootaxa.4006.1.7.