Giving You A Shock

Images: Hover to view

Giving You A Shock
by Peter Harrison

Turn over an old box in an outhouse, and you may be in for a big surprise. A weird looking creature that looks like a miniature prehistoric monster makes a sudden dash from its hiding place and goes straight up the wall. It looks like one of those plastic reptiles that we used to collect from packets of breakfast cereal when we were kids. Even those of us who have spent many years in Spain get a surprise, so I can well imagine the effect it had on a friend visiting us from England. A scream told all! He had encountered a gecko, one of the sixteen types of lizard that we find here in Spain and indeed, in several warm regions of the world where there is sand or sparse vegetation. It really is a delightful creature once you get used to its sudden rush for safety. It lives in walls and under roof tiles, anywhere it can hide away in a dark, cool place for it is basically a nocturnal animal.

If the gecko detects you in advance, either by sight or by sound, its reaction is different; it freezes. Its camouflage is very effective, and you would not be aware of its presence. Take it by surprise, however, and its immediate reaction is flight, which is what makes you jump. It has another way of escaping, and that is by forfeiting its tail. One of our cats came into the house with a wriggling gecko tail in her mouth. Do not be concerned that you have an injured gecko if you should have this experience. It is a defence mechanism, called autotomy, and is possible because of a weak plane of cleavage in one of the vertebrae of the tail. When in danger, the muscles on either side of the tail contract, and the cleavage allows the tail to separate from the body, enabling a shaken gecko to run away, free but wiser. Within a short time, he will have grown another. Reptiles have smart ways of getting out of trouble; sometimes I wish we humans had! One of the most ingenious escapees is the cousin of the gecko, the Basilisk Lizard, which is found in America. When surprised, it will escape by walking on water and has been dubbed the Jesus Christ Lizard as a result. As reptiles are a tasty dish for many birds, they have to be quick off the mark to escape a swoop from the sky. Geck

os are insect eaters although they do consume fruit from time to time. Because they enjoy insects, and we humans usually find insects irritating, many homes keep geckos as pets, a kind of living trap for nasties. There is nothing wrong with this but do allow geckos to be free around your home. They cause no harm apart from making you jump with surprise, and do remember they are wild creatures. I am against any curtailment of the freedom of wild things; they are as entitled to their enjoyment of life as we are.

In colder weather, geckos seem to vanish, which leads people to assume that they hibernate. This is not strictly true. As they are cold-blooded animals, they go torpid in cold weather and, if found by humans, the assumption is that they are ill. Not so….they are just drowsy and waiting for the warmer weather, when they will be running up walls and across ceilings, even climbing up the glass on your windows. Should you have a number of geckos, you will be amazed at their chirping sound, a gecko orchestra; it makes them different from their silent lizard cousins. This noise is a way of communicating, one gecko to another. The agili

ty of geckos and their ability to stick to vertical surfaces is due to the millions of hairs and suckers they have on their claws. The absence of liquid has fascinated scientists in California, who have studied these reptiles in order to develop a solid adhesive. Providing no harm comes to animals, it is a good idea to learn from them. Humans have developed ultra-sound and sonar by studying animals. We can all learn from one another.

cko, and one that intrigues scientists, is its immediate reaction to light, a procedure known as photoperiodism. One minute it is snoozing in a crack in a wall or under a box or tile. A light comes on, and the response is unbelievably rapid. I wish I could react in such a manner when the light interrupts my sleep first thing in the morning! Yes indeed, we have a lot to learn from them, but let us learn at a distance. There is a growing trend to make, or try to make, wild animals our pets; this is especially dangerous and cruel with reptiles. In several pet shops, there are Iguanas, indigenous to the wetlands of America’s southern states. These lovely creatures may be fascinating when small, but they can grow to two metres and can cause injury with their sweeping tail. Reptiles in captivity need special professional treatment; they sense small movements, such as a refrigerator motor vibration, and many need humidity control. Observe them, admire them and learn from them, but do not make them your pets. Whether we are animal lovers or not, no right-minded person deliberately wants to cause distress.