The species was first described by John Edward Gray in 1845, based on a holotype found in the British Museum.

[7] In 2011 the genus Mokopirirakau was established due to a phylogenetic analysis of New Zealand lizard genera.

[9] On the South Island they occur through Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman,[10] then down the West Coast until Ōkārito Lagoon.

[10] In 2012 the Department of Conservation reclassified the forest gecko as At Risk under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.

It was judged as meeting the criteria for At Risk threat status as a result of it having a low to high ongoing or predicted decline.

[1] In June 2010 seven forest geckos, four female and three male, were stolen from a wildlife park in Northland.