I took this shot earlier today. We've been living in our house since mid-'99 and we didn't see any of these little critters the first couple of years. Now they are everywhere, with resident geckos in every room it seems.
Hawaii has lots of geckos, with most of them resembling the common "house gecko" you can pick up at most pet stores for a couple bucks. At some point somebody introduced the day gecko on the island and they have been spreading ever since. The day geckos are rather aggressive feeders, and not only compete for food with the other geckos, which generally come out only at night, but also eat the other geckos. We're hearing a lot less gecko barking (the original gecko barks/chirps often at night) around the house these days.
Unfortunatly, no matter how cute these guys are, they are still one of the many non-native invasive species than now thrive on the islands.
I've added a link on the right to my
litte webshop at Cafe Press where I'm putting up some shirts and stuff with pictures on them. Take a gander at them, I'll keep putting up more photos/products - who knows, something might be interesting. Purchase at your own risk, I'll be picking up a few items for myself to see if the quality's Ok, if not I'll yank 'em.
Aloha,
Steve
4 comments:
Thanks for the great pic, first site I have been able to identify this beautiful alien. I have lived on Maui for 13 yrs and have never never seen a gecko like this before. I just moved to a new area which is closer to the rainforest, however I lived here before about 8 yrs ago and never saw this guy. Beautiful but I immediately thought invasive species due to his size and that I see it during the day. Its in my house now in the loft and dont have the heart to kill it, any ideas out there?
Consider it good luck! These geckos are quiet, although they do poop in the corners of your room a lot. We've got them all over Kona, they weren't in our area of South Kona 9 years ago but now are everywhere.
Invasive species wise, it's kind of a bummer that these guys are around, but most land critters here these days were introduced in relatively recent history... sad.
Thanks for the comment.
Steve
Just found one on my bedroom lanai last weekend...beautiful...but I am seeing less other geckos, I think "Mad-Billy" is eating them!
The day geckos are notorious for eating the local geckos.
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