I WROTE about geckos the other day and the fact that our common gecko, Moreau’s tropical house gecko, had been declared an illegal immigrant. Well, my friend and co-conspirator in the world of conservation, Paddy Norman of Wessa, has complained. He says that said gecko is not the only kid on the block down here and that we have many more totally legal geckos. Paddy seems quite sensitive about the issue, thinking perhaps that unruly mobs might just start taking it out on all geckos, alien or other wise, so I thought I’d better address the notion.
Geckos are a family of lizards, but they are a particularly fascinating family, probably because we often share our homes with them. They are the most diverse families of lizards in southern Africa, there being no fewer than 89 species, 68 of which are endemic (live only here)*. Of those, going by the distribution maps, only four may be found on the lower South Coast. They are the Pondo flat gecko, our gecko (Moreau’s, but remember that it has only just been declared an illegal alien), the Cape dwarf gecko and the spotted thick-toed gecko.
Paddy disagrees with me (but that is his wont). He includes Bilbron’s thick-toed gecko, which according to my source is a resident of the western and central parts of the country, nowhere close to here, unless, of course, it too is a recent immigrant. Sadly, space does not allow me to describe each one, but remember that some are smaller than others and some are dark, some light, and some, just to be really difficult, can vary their body colour.
Anyway, it’s always an interesting exercise to follow up on these things and it certainly demonstrates the remarkable biological diversity of our country. We have no fewer than 89 of the world’s approximately 760 species of gecko. I remember once ambling in the countryside just outside London with my cousin and a swallow flitted past: he exclaimed, “Look, a swallow!” I said, ‘Yes, but which one?’ And he said, ‘There’s only one, obviously’. I pointed out with some joy (and no doubt a little arrogance) that we have no fewer than 14 different swallows. We walked in silence for a while.
From the little guys to the biggies. An English university** has established that elephants are very conscious of the phases of the moon. This does not necessarily make them lunatics, but rather the opposite. A study has shown that elephants wait patiently for the darkest of nights before raiding farm crops, apparently understanding that they are less likely to be spotted and apprehended on a moonless night than on a moonlit one. Therefore, suggests the study, eles can and do assess the risk factor in their crop raids. That is quite amazing, but then elephants are amazing. Be very watchful on the next moonless night, there may be eles in your garden raiding your lettuces. Cheers!
*Snakes and Other Reptiles of Southern Africa, Bill Branch, Struik, Cape Town, 1998.
**The Week, The Best of the British and Foreign Media, London.
