h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't quite see the problem... traditionally, geckos live in just about every house in warmer climate zones.

P.S. And who is this Yarreau peson you are talking about?

*giggle* I cheated and looked at your PS.

Not sure about how many geckos I might end up with...watch this space!

Fifteen or sixteen years ago, my family went to Maui on vacation. We stayed in Hana, a small town at the southern tip of the island. Geckos would climb up the walls occasionally. They were no problem. What was more of a problem was the poultry farm nearby. Every morning the roosters would wake us up.

I think I remember seeing something on TV about such Geckos. I think they lay their eggs behind mirrors and pictures. But maybe I don't remember that correctly.

'....What make’s a gecko’s foot so special (and so hard to reproduce) is that it doesn’t use either physical interlocking like Velcro or a chemical reaction to adhere like epoxy. Instead, it relies on van der Waals forces, the weak, secondary bonding force that holds molecules together when they're in close proximity. As a result, the gecko’s foot "glue" never wears out, and is effective on a wide variety of surfaces. ...'

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2008/09/paging-spiderman-new-material-mimics-gecko-feet.ars

(Hey they are nearly as interesting as some species of caddis fly's larvae feeding mechanisms ).

Thanks, Effers, but that is in the Guide already, as BigAl pointed out.

It might be in the Guide, but it's also pretty .

Am I right in thinking that geckos are sort of lizard that will look liks a statue, and just sort of sit and stare at you? Or are they small and run around a lot? I've never seen one before.

I was amazed and delighted by them when I visited Crete.

There was a kind of porch thing where we would sit in the evening..having interesting conversations and they'd be there hanging on the ceiling..yes they are like small lizards.

And in the morning they'd be gone...at least in Crete and back the next evening.

Yes, they are a nocturnal lizard, but have a softer skin, they don't look scaly. And they sit very still, so if you approach them carefully they don't run away. When they do run, they run fast.

Looky looky!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66337204@N03/6289412490/in/photostream/lightbox/


This is the bigger one.

awwww... so cute... I bet the bigger one is the girl... you can tell because of the long eyelashes...

Darn! I can't see your picture! What is this 'lightbox' because whenever I get a flickr link with 'lightbox' in it, I can't see it! Over here I have two kinds of geckoes: the garden kind, which is a Dwarf Gecko (Lygodactylus) and then the house gecko which is a different kind, I don't know which genus since I think they've been imported here. The garden gecko is very small, dark-grey or brown (varying quite a lot in shade, I wonder if they have a limited ability to change colour?) with a couple of stripes along the back. The house gecko is pinkish with darker mottling, and slightly larger. I guess they could be boring if kept in a cage, but the ones in my garden amuse me no end. (I've written a journal entry about them: http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F63395?thread=8277616 Geckoes and skinks (also a kind of lizard) have impressed me with the variety of their behaviours. Some rather surprising things they do: geckoes can leap distances longer than their head-and-body length, despite their extremely short legs. I've seen one leap from one bar to the next, Tarzan-style, in the security gate in front of the front door ... the bars are about 4 inches apart and the gecko is just slightly over 2 inches in length. The house gecko has a voice. It has a rapid 'chuck-chuck-chuk-chuck' call. This one makes great use of the pictures I've stuck on the walls and the bookcases. But I haven't seen or heard them in a while ... perhaps because it's been winter and there haven't been any insects in the house. I wonder if they hibernate ... or if perhaps a new generation hatches out each Spring? I'll watch out for them. Perhaps keep a window or two open during the evenings so that a few bugs can get in.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66337204@N03/6289412490/in/photostream/

hope you can see it a bit better now Willem. They don't seem to make any sound at all. I did read that some geckoes made calling noises, but these are totally silent.

I have no idea what species they are at all, but they must be about 4-6 inches maximum when fully grown. The photo is of one on my ceiling, right over my head - it's a low ceiling. They are a soft grey-green, the colour in the photo is quite realistic.

What I like about them is their cute little toes, and I suppose this is what is the most fascinating thing about them, their ability to cling to smooth surfaces and yet still run like the blazes.

The only thing they don't seem to choose to cling to is my large wall of mirrored glass over the stair well - but just this second one of them is firmly attached to the polished aluminium surround,

Hi there! Thanks I can see it now. Yours looks a bit 'rougher' than ours, ours have very smooth skins. And they're pinkish, almost translucent looking, and their eyes don't bulge so much. Also smaller, I don't think they go over 5 inches. I have a photo here somewhere, will go look for it ...

I also wonder how they can rapidly detach their toes when they run! If I'm not mistaken, a gecko can suspend its whole bodyweight from just one toe.

They're weird things... Maybe we need a guide entry about them, in addition to the one about caring for them as pets... more on the physiology and life of them in the natural environment

re 13: I thought of Michael and Douglas also

re 19: I don't, I just don't care

I wish we had geckos in Boston, but it's too cold for them in the winter.

I liked the ones we had in Greece, they were really cute,