There
are many beautiful gecko lizards in Cape York.
They are
small tropical lizards
very
abundant in northern Australia, including tropical north Queensland and
Cape York peninsula.
They are nocturnal insect eaters with large eyes, vertical pupils and distinctive gecko feet.
Not many live in tropical rainforests, most
like dry habitat.
The best known are house geckoes, but we do also have other ones.
House
Geckoes House
gecko lizards
are well known to us because we see them daily in our homes.
What not
everyone thinks about is that there are two kinds - the native house
geckos,
and the introduced Asian
house geckos.
by codiferous via Flickr.com
Leaf
Tailed Geckoes
Some of the most amazing geckos are leaf tailed geckoes. They are
masters
of camouflage on tree barks, and they are some of the few kinds that
live in rainforest. In north Queensland, we have at least four - Phyllurus isis,Phyllurus
ossa,Phyllurus nepthys;
and Saltuarius cornutus
(Cape York).
by Arthur Chapman via Flickr.com
Velvet
Geckoes Velvet
geckos also look great with their patterns, and they live in dry forest
and woodland. We have Oedura
castelnaui (Tip
of Cape York to Mareeba), Oedura coggeri
(Palmer River, Lockhart River),
and Oedura rhombifer
(Mount Cook in
the north to Mackay in the south).
by ntenny via Flickr.com
Mourning
Gecko
Mourning gecko lizards can be similar to house geckoes but they have a
distinctive w-shaped pattern with darker flecks on their cream body.
They live in open woodland, mangrove
swamps, and also urban areas, from Torres Strait Islands
in the north to Bowen and Heron Island in the south.
By _Nathan_Johnson via Flickr.com
Bynoe's
Gecko Another
pretty one is
Bynoe's Gecko, with a brown to grey body and pale and dark flecks, in a
broken band pattern. It lives in open forest and tropical woodland, and
in Queensland it is found from Cooktown
in the north to Mackay in the south, and it is also found in other
states in Australia.
by berniedup via Flickr.com
Ring
Tailed Gecko
Ring tailed gecko lizards belong to Cyrtodactylus
family and they have beautiful dark bands all across their pale body
and long, slender tail. They live in rainforest and open forest, and
they are found in north Queensland, from McIlwraith Ranges in the north
to Mount Molloy in the
south.
House
Gecko Lizards
House
gecko lizards live in tropical northern Australia.
If you
live in northern
Australia then the word 'gecko' immediately brings to mind the species you can see at home,
even though there are many other species of geckos in Australia.
House geckos are cute to
watch,
but they can also become annoyingly numerous and are often regarded as
household pests.
However, there is one species whose damage goes beyond households, and unfortunately
it's a
very common one. There are
at least 60
species of
geckos in Australia.
Only a
couple
live in people's houses, and only one is introduced - all the rest are
native.
What
Are House Geckoes?
Originally
tree dwellers,
house geckos have cleverly adapted
to
the life in people's houses,
where they have some great advantages for survival.
Obviously, human dwellings provide them some pretty good shelter
which makes it
easier to hide from predators than by just laying under a log.
The main food of geckos
is insects.
Particular favourites are moths, mosquitoes and cockroaches but they
eat any insects and spiders that they can get.
People's houses attract
insects
and provide great opportunities to catch them.
As soon as you turn on a ceiling light, there will be insects attracted
to it,
and there will be geckos catching the insects in your
ceiling.
House gecko lizard.
What
Good Are House Geckoes?
They clean the house from
insects,
and some of their particular favourites are the insects that we mostly
dislike, such as mosquitoes and cockroaches.
They also look cute
and make a
cute noise
that is so easy to
become
familiar with that you soon start associating it with your home.
That's unless you hate them..
Native house
gecko.
Do They Have Any Disadvantages
to Us?
Yes house gecko lizards do
annoy people, they can get too numerous, they can also
pooh a
bit,
including in kitchen cupboards and plates..
They are also known to destroy
electrical appliances such as computers and air
conditioners, by
climbing in to them, and stepping onto wrong parts (motherboards),
causing short-circuiting.
I have also read about them shorting out lights and ruining remote
controlled roller doors.
However they are NOT
poisonous and
they don't harm humans physically in any way.
The introduced species, Asian House
Gecko.
What
Kinds Are There?
The most common one you
see is
unfortunately the only introduced
species - Asian
House
Gecko.
It was accidentally
introduced
from Asia, and it has been so successful that it has taken over the
niche from native house
gecko
species.
There are a few different native ones, the one that we have in Cape
York and Queensland is dubious
dtella (Gehyra
dubia).
Native
House Geckoes
There are
a few different native house geckos in Australia.
There is
also at least
one in the Kimberleys, but the one we have in north eastern Australia
and Cape York peninsula, is the Eastern or dubious
dtella (Gehyra
dubia).
It's a beautiful little gecko that is seen less and less since the
infamous Asian species is increasingly moving into its niche.
It has made the native geckos move out of the houses and back into trees. The
native ones are more brownish
grey
while the introduced species is rather pink,
but there are several other clues to distinguish the two.
Queensland's native species, Dubious
dtella (Gehyra dubia),
By
Arthur Chapman
via Flickr.com.
Appearance
Its
length
without tail is about 6cm, and with the tail about 14cm.
On its brownish grey surface it has a darker mottling pattern with lighter
spots.
The
pigments
sometimes form lines
along the
back or between the eyes and the neck of the animal.
Like other geckos, it has eyes with vertical pupils and no eye-lids.
Like many other geckos, it also has the ability to drop its tail when
threatened.
As opposed to the Asian
House Gecko
that has spines along the tail, the native one has a smooth skin with no spines.
Another difference is that it has no
claws on inner toes while the Asian species has claws on
all the
toes.
Behaviour
of the Native House
Gecko
The
native house gecko changes
its colour a bit and tends
to be lighter and lose its pattern when foraging.
But there is an unmistakeable difference - the loudchuck-chuck-chuck
call of the Asian
species.
Like
their
Asian relatives, the native ones are agile
geckos, quick to move, and they eat insects of all kinds that they can
catch and swallow.
They breed and lay their eggs during the Wet Season. Queensland's
native species, Dubious dtella (Gehyra
dubia), By Arthur Chapman via Flickr.com.
Habitat
and Range
They are found in north
eastern
Australia in almost all of Queensland (throughout the
Great
Barrier Reef, Cape York and Torres
Strait), and in northern New South Wales. They are also found
in
Papua New Guinea.
They do live in houses
if they
can, but as the Asian House Gecko is overtaking their niche, they are
often found outside, in forests, woodlands and rocky outcrops.
They live in shrubs and trees, and hide under loose bark. They prefer dry habitat.
Asian
House
Gecko
Asian
house gecko is now a common gecko in our homes.
You sure
know them if you
ever lived or stayed for long enough in northern Australia.
Their chuck-chuck-chuck call
is so familiar, you can hear it inside houses, and it's loud enough
that you can also hear it outside, in people's yards, in trees,
everywhere.
They are cute
and they are fun to watch
as they chase insects
on your balcony.
However, there is one
thing - they
don't belong here.
As their name says, they are not from Australia, and there are native
house geckoes that they compete with about the niche.
As most introduced animals, they are doing a good job - it's the Asian
species you see most often, not the native
house geckos.
Appearance
of the Asian House
Gecko
Also
called Pacific
or Common House Gecko,
Hemidactylus frenatus
is about 10cm long, and has a grey to pale pink body, with some mottled
darker patterning on the upper side, and a paler underbelly.
It can change its colour to a certain extent, and tends to be darker
during the day and paler during the night.
Unlike the native house gecko it
has
spines along the tail and lower back.
It also has claws on all
of its toes
while the native Dtella does not have any on the inner toes.
Behaviour
and Habitat
But the most obvious difference is its chuck-chuck-chuck call, which is
distinctively loud.
It is seen in and around buildings
and homes, where it is chasing insects which is its main
diet.
It also eats spiders and even other, small lizards, but it does go eating scraps
too if you
have an open bin or forget something on the kitchen table!
They live about five years.
Distribution
in Australia
As the
name says, the gecko
is native to Asia, and has been accidentally introduced to tropical and subtropical areas of
many
other continents.
In Australia,
it was first seen
in Darwin in the 1960s, and then in far north Queensland in the 1970s
and Brisbane in the 1980s. It has now also spread to New South Wales
and Western Australia.
Impact
of the Asian House Gecko
Like with
most introduced
species, it has been very
adaptable
- it is the most
successful
introduced reptile in Australia.
It is spreading south and also from urban (where it was most common for
starters) to rural areas.
It is competing about
food and habitat
with the native house gecko, which it has already widely outcompeted
from its habitat.
Being so successful and efficient predators, they are also known to
kill baby huntsman spiders, thereby also affecting the populations of
the natural predators of huntsmans, and the whole food chain.
Like always with introduced species, accidentally or not, they put the
ecosystem out of balance. Like with many other introduced species
including cane toads, getting rid of them is impossible.
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