As the decade draws to a close, one little reptile is going out on a high. After 37 years as an endangered species, the Monito gecko has finally received a new, official distinction: recovered.

The inch-and-a-half-long gecko, endemic to a single tiny island in Puerto Rico, is one of three formerly endangered species to hit that milestone this year. The others—the Kirtland’s warbler, a petite, chartreuse-bellied songbird, and the Foskett’s speckled dace, a spotted minnow native to two springs in Oregon—join the gecko to become the 25th, 26th and 27th U.S. animal species in history to make it successfully off the Endangered Species Act’s list.

The process of taking a species off the list, called delisting, is complex. Recovery can be lengthy