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Tokay Gecko | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko), a nocturnal gecko | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Where to be heard and seen? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indigenous to Asia, parts of India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, they have also been introduced to Hawaii, Florida, and some Caribbean Islands. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Habitat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Their native habitat is rainforest trees and cliffs, and they also frequently adapt to human habitations, roaming walls and ceilings at night in search of insect prey. It is arboreal, living on cliffs and trees; it is not unusual to see them inside human residences. |
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| Life Span | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A typical lifespan is 7–10 years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personality | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tokay geckos are aggressive carnivores which will eat a variety of insects and even small mice. Their aggressive behaviour can lead to attacks on other male Tokays, other gecko species, and also human handlers. They are renowned for their aggressive disposition and (unusually for lizards) their loud vocalizations. Their mating call, a loud croak, is variously described as sounding like tokeh or gekk-gekk, whence both the common and the scientific name (deriving from onomatopoeic names in Malay, Sundanese or Javanese), as well as the family name Gekkonidae and the generic term gecko. |
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| Size & Appearance | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tokays are the second largest gecko species, attaining lengths of about 30-40cm (males), 20-30cm (females) and weights of 150-300g. They are distinctive in appearance, with a bluish or grayish body sporting orange or red spots. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes, they bite! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Luckily the Tokay Geckos we have seen appear to be incredibly timid animals towards humans. However, they do hunt their pray aggressively which occasionally results in them dropping of ceilings. Personally, we have not heard of anyone having seriously been bitten by a Tokay Gecko, but according to Tokay Gecko owners the bite of a large Tokay Gecko is painful and can draw blood. Once having bitten, it will not readily let go. Tokay Gecko owners claim that the only effective way to get these animals to release in to submerge them in water. |
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| Diet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Healthy Tokays tend to have large appetites. They feed on larger insects like moths, crickets, grasshoppers, locusts and cockroaches. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Offspring |
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| Females will lay their eggs in clutches of two, usually on solid vertical surfaces. Eggs hatch in anything from 60 to 200 days but with most hatching at around 90 to 100 days. Lower temperatures will lead to longer incubation time. These geckos' sex is temperature dependent, with higher temperatures leading to male hatchlings. |
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| Tokay Burger anyone? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In some countries Tokays are considered food and they are also used in some Chinese medicinal preparations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific Feet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tokays have been used extensively to study the selectively adhesive properties of gecko feet, and indeed most of our knowledge about these properties stems from studies of Tokays. These studies have shown that geckos can cling upside down to polished glass, and the method by which the Tokay Gecko accomplishes this is hidden in its feet. The pads at the tip of a gecko's foot is covered in microscopic hairs. Each of these hairs splits into hundreds of tips only 200 nanometers in diameter. By using these tiny hairs that can adhere to smooth surfaces, geckos are able to support their entire body weight with a single toe. The adhesive force created by these hairs, called setae (pronounced see' tee), lining the gecko's toes is estimated to be so strong that a single seta can lift the weight of an ant. The strong adhesion is caused by an intermolecular force called Van der Waals force. This force is weak until it gets very close to a surface. When the surface it contacts is large, it can add up to a strong attraction. Van der Waals forces occur when unbalanced electrical charges around molecules attract each other. The charges are always fluctuating and can sometimes reverse direction, but the outcome is that they draw molecules together, such as molecules in a gecko's foot and molecules on a smooth wall. |
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| Cambodian beliefs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It is considered lucky if a Tokay lets out 7 or more calls, and unlucky if there are fewer than 7 calls.
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