https://phys.org/news/2018-05-creatures-cope-climate.html > Prof. Klaus Henle, head of the Department of Conservation Biology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, began collecting data about Gehyra variegata as far back as the 1980s. Working in the Kinchega National Park in Eastern Australia, he and his colleagues have been catching, measuring, photographing, tagging and then releasing reptiles for more than 30 years. > The researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research then collated this information with weather conditions in the national park, and also with global climate phenomena. Their findings are surprising, to say the least. As biologist Annegret Grimm-Seyfarth said, "We expected the higher temperatures and greater dryness to have a negative effect both on the individual geckos and on their populations." After all, even lizards need a certain amount of moisture to ensure that their eggs develop properly, and to enable them to moult when they need to. If they dry out completely, they will die. And the same is also true if excessive temperatures cause them to overheat. "But our investigations revealed that our geckos grow and survive particularly well in the very hottest years. In fact, they are generally in better condition, and their populations grow rather than fall."