We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that have helped to substantially improve the article. Ihlow F, Courant J, Secondi J, Herrel A, Rebelo R et al. The models also showed that its potential range extends to other areas such as the arid regions of Argentina, South Africa, and South Australia. Both MaxEnt and ensemble models in this study used the previously described presence-only records and 10,000 random background points to develop models for the current and future probability of occurrence of the five invasive Hemidactylus species. MaxEnt stands for maximum entropy and is a modeling software specifically designed for SDMs (Phillips et al. Your email address will not be published. (C) Predicted potential distribution under RCP 2.6 for the MaxEnt model and (D) the ensemble model. 2011; Baier et al. Hemidactylus brookii seems to tolerate higher temperatures than the other species. Data from these models were resampled following Hijmans et al. (A) Current potential distribution for the MaxEnt and (B) the ensemble model. Climatic characteristics of the native and invasive ranges of the Mediterranean house gecko (. The final dataset contained a total of 6,404 records for Hemidactylus brookii (n = 720), H. frenatus (n = 2,065), H. garnotii (n = 359), H. mabouia (n = 1,429), and H. turcicus (n = 1,831). First all records were geocoded using the described localities provided with each record. Preserved specimen in the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. Specimen collected in 2001 in the Merwede Harbor, Rotterdam, Netherlands. In Continental Africa, H. frenatus is mostly absent, while climatic conditions are favourable. This study was funded by the Cat Drop Foundation. Results from the MaxEnt and ensemble models for H. brookii based on current climate conditions and projected for 2,050 using two representative concentrations pathways (RCP). Under a changing climate, H. turcicus is likely to expand its distribution vastly throughout North America and Europe. Both models also showed that the potential distribution of H. brookii and H. frenatus covered large areas that were suitable for both species. 2006). Hemidactylus frenatus is mainly found in South East Asia, northern Australia, Madagascar, Central America, and many Pacific islands. Several species of house geckos from this genus belong to the world’s most widely distributed and invasive lizards. MaxEnt is a very popular method for modeling presence-only data and has previously been used for modelling the distribution of Hemidactylus species (Rödder et al. Required fields are marked *. This allowed us to assess how suitable these location are for the specific species, whether species are likely to co-occur and to quantify overlap in certain environmental conditions. We then calculated the mean probability of occurrence for the MaxEnt and ensemble models based on all climate models for each RCP. Each dot displays a location where one or more specimen was recorded. Conditions for H. garnotii were highly unsuitable on most locations were all other species were recorded. Common House Gecko Hemidactylus frenatus 1993 Pet trade Established Indo-Pacific Gecko Hemidactylus garnotii 1963 Cargo Established Tropical House Gecko Hemidactylus mabouia 1980s Cargo Established Flat-tailed 1984 Callaway Z, Thomas A, Melrose W, Buttner P, Speare R. Cook DC, Thomas MB, Cunningham SA, Anderson DL, De Barro PJ. This sampling bias can be accounted for in MaxEnt using data that approximates the sampling bias. 2007)] and H. mabouia [(SVL: 40–61 mm, Meshaka Jr 1995; Dame and Petren 2006; Iturriaga and Marrero 2013]. http://landcover.usgs.gov/documents/GlobalLandCover_tif.zip, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, Receive exclusive offers and updates from Oxford Academic, Copyright © 2020 Editorial Office, Current Zoology. In certain parts of Florida, H. turcicus was one of the most common invasive Hemidactylus species (Meshaka Jr 1995). 2010). For example, in Suriname (South America) H. mabouia is the most commonly distributed species (Nielsen et al. Comparison of probability of occurrence from ensemble models for each Hemidactylus species on locations of occurrence records for (A) H. brookii, (B) H. frenatus, (C) H. garnotii, (D) H. mabouia, and (E) H. turcicus. The effects of interspecies interactions may severely affect the distribution of Hemidactylus species.