THE UNIQUE MORNING GECKOS

      Mourning geckos are unique, interesting, little lizards that live in trees on islands in the tropical and sub-tropical Indian and South Pacific Oceans.  Three to four inches long, including their tails, these geckos' smooth scales range from light to dark tan, with even darker spots on their backs and tails, which camouflages them for their safety from predators in the trees during daylight hours.  

     These geckos can change their colors as they move about by day, to remain camouflaged.  They are mostly nocturnal, however, which hides them from predators while they search for insects, spiders and other invertebrates to eat, plus fruit, flower nectar and pollen, and other small edibles.  

     Some mourning geckos get blown from trees into the oceans during storms and high wind.  But leafy branches, tree bark and whole trees are also dumped into the oceans.  Some geckos climb onto the resulting rafts of natural debris, which carry them away across the vast oceans for many miles.

      Today, however, much human-made material also floats on the ocean currents, and carry many mourning geckos on board with them.  And as that cast away stuff lands on other islands, the geckos get off and head for trees on those islands.  This is one case in many others that wildlife is actually helped by human-made litter on the environment.    

     The geckos being small and cold-blooded need little food and water.  They can live for weeks on rain water, invertebrates and fruit on those rafts, until some of them beach on other islands where the lizards get off and look for food in the trees of those new islands.

     Interestingly, almost all mourning geckos are females and lay eggs without being fertilized by males.  As a result, one female on an island can, in time, populate that whole island.  That is why these little lizards inhabit many of the 20,000 islands in the Indian and South Pacific Oceans.    

     Mourning geckos are unique and intriguing little lizards that pass among ocean islands because of their small size, low metabolism and ability to live on floating rafts on the Indian and South Pacific Oceans for weeks.  And because female mourning geckos don't need to mate with males of their kind, they can colonize and populate islands without the help of males, that may never land on some islands even if they did exist.  These lizards are better off without males.      

              

     

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