Gecko

Family Gekkonidae

Reptile

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about geckos. Stay up to date on new facts by subscribing! Believe it or not, there are a lot of geckos out there. With more than 1,000 species and more still awaiting discovery, geckos are a huge group of lizards. That being said, gecko classification is still hotly debated. For most people, this is a gecko, but, technically speaking, this is also a gecko. I don’t blame you if you don’t believe that. Trying to talk about geckos as a whole isn’t the easiest task. To make things more simple, we’re going to discuss all the geckos… except those guys. We’ll save them for another episode.

Geckos live in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of the world. They’ve colonized just about every terrestrial habitat from deserts to mountains, and, though they don’t live in any aquatic habitats, they can walk all over them. Seriously! Some geckos are able to run across the surface of water at a speed of about three feet (1m) per second - that’s just over two miles per hour… wait… that makes it seem like they’re slow doesn’t it? I’ll put it to you this way, geckos can run on the surface of the water faster than any other animal that swims on the water’s surface besides these guys. So like… faster than a duck. This ability is aided by their super special toes which come equipped with pads that allow geckos to stick to just about any surface; they can even walk across a glass ceiling. Some geckos even have special pads on their tails which can then act like a fifth limb in this gravity defying act of mobility. Now, contrary to popular understanding, not all geckos have these toe pads, in much the same way not all geckos have to lick their eyeballs.

I’m assuming you knew about gecko eyeball licking, but if you didn’t, now you do! Many species of geckos lick their eyeballs because they do not have closable eyelids, meaning they can’t blink to clean their eyes. Some geckos have avoided this curiosity of evolution and still possess eyelids that close, however, so that just goes to show how diverse these lizards can be. Speaking of which, geckos can come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some of the smallest lizards in the world belong to the group of geckos, but others can be big bois. Some are drab browns, but some are also bright green. And their tails are all over the place - especially when they drop them! Geckos drop their tails when they feel threatened. This is a predatory defense mechanism which allows the rest of the gecko to escape, just a lot shorter than she started. The tail grows back, though - so does their skin when they drop their skin. Yeah apparently the losing body parts doesn’t stop at the tail with these guys; some species, like fishscale geckos, can even shed entire sections of their skin in order to escape becoming a meal. Basically these lizards are super soldiers who are probably going to take over the world.

Mating habits among the different species are diverse. Some females lay eggs, others give birth to live young; some fertilize their eggs through sexual reproduction, others can undergo parthenogenesis; some lay eggs in communities with other females where more than 100 eggs may be laid in a group nest, others hold onto their eggs for four years before laying them --- it’s not exactly a cut and dry subject for such a large group! As far as has been observed, geckos don’t help raise their young, so they’re on their own from birth, and some species can live to be decades old!

One of the most well known geckos, at least in America, is the bipedal, car insurance mascot. Though the company has never said his species, it’s likely he’s a day gecko - though, I think it’s worth noting that there’s evidence to suggest that geckos in nature at their current point in evolution are not capable of walking upright. So either that gecko traveled from a time geckos can walk upright or...

For more facts on geckos, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up for geckos, and thanks for watching Animal Fact Files!