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Range: Tropical Asia Habitat: Dense Tropical Forests Natural Diet: Small insects, small lizards Diet at Rain Forest: Small insects Size: 5-10 inches The Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) is a nocturnal arboreal gecko, ranging from northeast India and Bangladesh, throughout Southeast Asia, Philippines to Indonesia and western New Guinea. Its native habitat is rainforest trees and cliffs, and it also frequently adapts to rural human habitations, roaming walls and ceilings at night in search of insect prey. Increasing urbanization is reducing its range. In the late 1980s and early 1990s it was introduced into Hawaii, Florida, Texas, Belize, and several Caribbean islands, where it can be considered an invasive species. The Tokay Gecko is known as a Tuko or Toko in the
Philippines for its characteristic vocalizations where people have mixed
feelings about it ranging from terror of the mistaken belief that its feet can
tear your skin off to great love and admiration for its entertaining
vocalizations. In the Philippines most people respect it and
RainForest Facts: An extremely vocal lizard, the Tokay gecko derives it's common name for the geckos ability to make a very loud noise that sounds like "to-kay" Rain Forests of Asia contain many natural predators of the Tokay Gecko, for this reason the Tokay has developed a nasty disposition as well as a powerful bite. In Florida the Tokay Gecko is often used in Greenhouses as a natural form of pest control, cockroaches and other insects do not stand a chance with this formidable hunter prowling around at night. Status in Wild: Numbers appear
to be stable in the majority of the undisturbed regions of the Tokay Geckos
natural range.
This species does very well in areas of human habitation and is actually
introduced in regions outside it's natural range. |
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it because it eats dangerous pests such as scorpions and giant centipedes.