An rejected male will act aggressively towards the female and guard the entrance to her refuge site in an enlarged stance with arched back posture and extended legs.

[13] Duvaucel's gecko is an opportunistic omnivore, relying on sugar resources in their diet from fruit, nectar, and honeydew, but also occasionally consuming invertebrates.

[16] Honeydew is an annual resource, versus seasonal production of flowers and fruit and varied opportunities of predation events.

[11] Duvaucel's gecko prefers fruit from Kawakawa (Piper excelsum), Coprosma robusta, and Muehlenbeckia astonii species.

[18] Frugivory can contribute to the dispersal of the consumed plant species, though this is dependent on seed retention time in the gut.

Ngaio (Myoporum laetum) infested with high densities of honeydew-producing scale insects, namely endemic Coelostomidia zealandica, is a favoured resource over other insect-infested plant species.

[20] Body size may therefore influence resource selection behaviour, displacing smaller individuals to lower-resource areas as a means of competition.

[24][13][20][22][26] Sympatry on offshore islands with predator species, particularly tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) and kiore, has induced behavioural changes in the Duvaucel’s gecko.

[24] Tuatara are also a nocturnal species with similar habitat and diet to Duvaucel’s gecko, leading to resource competition and exclusion during nighttime foraging.

[7] Duvaucel’s gecko have adapted to this competitive stressor through temporal avoidance behaviour, foraging later into the night when tuatara are less active.

[7][16][22][24] By occupying different spatial and temporal ranges, Duvaucel’s gecko can reduce predation risk and competition enforced by predatory species.

Recruitment is restricted due to high predation on naïve juvenile individuals, causing long term conservation concerns for the Duvaucel’s gecko.

[22][24] Increased cryptic behaviour causes difficulty in population monitoring as individuals are less active and occupy changing habitats.

Groups of 2-8 individuals will aggregate together throughout the day in secluded areas, including rock crevices, tree hollows, or ground vegetation.

Snout rubbing or cloacal dragging across a resource marks the site with hormones, identified via tongue flicking behaviour that carries the scent into the highly developed olfactory system.

This form of communication is used in male competition, mating opportunities, between juveniles and mothers, as well as the recognition of an unknown conspecific in the area.

[13] Past conservation of the Duvaucel's gecko has primarily focused on translocation and predator-free regimes to increase population growth.

Artificial retreats formed of tree trunk coverings have been shown to increase population monitoring in the early post-translocation period, mimicking natural aggregation sites to encourage localised dispersal.