I was watching the gecko on the window eating bugs and I realized just how dirty the window was. I cleaned the inside but I’ll have to get a pole or something to do the outside of one of the panes. It occured to me, will that make it harder or easier for him to climb around the glass? Will I be harming his little gecko habitat?
Go-go-gecko!
I’d say easier, but not noticably so. Geckos can climb on glass because they have setae on their feet which utilize the Van der Waals force to adhere to surfaces.
Here’s an interesting link dealing with “gecko tape”.
Ah, but if your window is so full of gunky brownish dirt that it provides the lil’ gecko with a habitat from which he is camouflaged from predating birds, then in the big picture, your cleaning the glass may be in fact altering its habitat for the worse.
Though probably not. I just like to argue 
.
Geckos are cool!
This one was a big hit among the ladies at work, one day when we had a roach come visiting, bui my favourite might be this.
Oh dear. That one is a chameleon, of the Family Chamaeleonidae. Not a gecko, of the Family Geckonidae. Just picking nits. Still a completely cool animal though. And the one curled up on a dime, how cool is that that biologists are still discovering interesting new species! (must’ve needed some big glasses to spot him in the sand!)
Negatory. That’s a Day Gecko in the genus Phelsuma, which are indeed in the Gekkonidae.
- Tamerlane
Tamerlane, right you are! I should’ve paid more attention to the pic than the words in the link. :o I humbly thank you for the correction.
(Thank Gaia I’m typing this, I wouldn’t be able to vocalize it what with this foot in my mouth).
No matter which family, they still fall under the heading of “cat toy”. Now to find out how the hell they are getting into my house; I am tired of finding tails and itty bitty bodies all over the place.
Well, they certainly don’t look like your average gecko :). It just so happens I used to have a couple of Gold Dust Day Geckos as pets, so it clicked right away.
Are you in Hawaii? Last time I was on the Big Island they were everywhere ( in the house, outside the house, on every other leaf on every other tree… ).
And hey, at least it saves on buying new cat-nip mice every week :p.
- Tamerlane
Don’t I wish!
Nope, Florida. Quite a few geckos**, but more in the way of anoles - the green ones are native to Florida, but the brown ones were (accidentally?) imported into Florida from Cuba, and very quickly are pushing the green ones out of their ecological niche.
** Those suckers can run FAST!!! They have a weird, almost hypnotic lateral undulation as they run, and they leave all sorts of footie prints on the windows, the walls, the computer monitor. Almost as bad as the frog that got into my house and left a trail of cat-caused destruction in her quest to ‘getthefroggetthefroggetthefrog’, as well as all the frog footie prints on the windows, the walls, and the computer monitor.
I just had to ask - is there actually two different types of anole? You are aware that the little Carolina Anoles common in petstores are usually a dark brown during the day but turn bright green while asleep?
Yep, that was a day gecko. We’ve got one at work. Fast little begger!
According to A Birder’s Guide to Florida by Bill Pranty (American Briding Association, 1996), “Other Faunal Lists for Florida”, page 354:
Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) - Woodlands throughout
Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) - Exotic, native to the west Indies. Spreading throughout
Jamaican Giant Anole (Anolis garmani) - Exotic, native to Jamaica. Miami area
Crested Anole (Anolis cristatellus) - Exotic, native to Puerto Rico. Miami area
Large-headed Anole (Anolis cybotes) - Exotic, native to the West Indies. Fort Lauderdale and Miami
Bark Anole (Anolis distichus) - Exotic, native to the Bahamas. Southeast coast and Keys
Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) - Exotic, native to Cuba. Fort Lauderdale and Miami
In addition, there are nine (listed) species of geckos [only the Florida Reef Gecko (Sphaerodactylus notatus) is native to Florida], one basilisk [Brown Basilisk (Basiliscus vittatus - native to Tropical America, found in Miami canals], two iguanas [both are exotics], ten lizards, two racerunners, one whiptail, and seven skinks. Gawd knows how many are escaped pets, and what other pets are not yet escaped into the environment. (Plus, the author is working on another update - I cannot right now find my 2000 edition, so had to rely on my 1996 edition.)
No wonder my cat is hyper. This is the natural equivalent of “Pet Toys Are Us!!!”.