Geckos hunt at night, so a rare sighting of a gecko in the garden recently was exciting. We often see signs of geckos - their old skins that they have climbed out of, or a quick dart of a small dark figure if its hiding place is uncovered. But this gecko stayed quite still for a long time, long enough to be photographed.
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| Gecko from underneath |
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| Gecko peeking out from behind the frond |
We included Geckos and Skinks in our book
In the Garden.
While they may not be thought of as a common garden animal, they would be seen more often if people make their gardens 'gecko and skink friendly'. A good way to do this is to have create rock gardens - the rocks warm up in the sun making a great habitat for reptiles. You won't have much luck though if you keep a cat, or have hedgehogs in your garden, as both kill geckos and skinks.
Here is a link to ideas about how to make a
lizard-friendly habitat on the Science Learn website.
Science Learn is a New Zealand website for students and teachers, it could also be interesting to parents as it covers many New Zealand contexts.