Our geckos - unfortunate friends

cockroaches, so they alternate harmonize with the rocks they

with us and we rarely meet. They frequent.
are really shy, and scuttle away Inside the home, we meet
when surprised during the night. mostly the Turkish Gecko
They are also silent most of. (Hemidactylus), while in the
the time, but during their mating opeh we meet the Wall Gecko.
season their tiny croaks may be The latter likes to come but to
heard in the darkness. bask in the sun on fine days, even
B.y Guido Lanfranco i In winter they are also torpid, if it is winter, thus absorbing heat
'-----'-...;.... ______ __: and rest most of the time, as do which increases their rate of
also the cockroaches. activity.
Mostpeoplehavetheobsession They also have the capacity of
Thousands of us squeeze out of killing anything that moves,
aerosol insecticides to attack but this is illogical, and when
cockroaches which find shelter questioned as to why they have
in our homes, and to rid ourselves killed, their answers are not
. of a few insects we may end up rational. Some say that they do
irritating our lungs or poisoning not like geckos, therefore they
foods and pets. kill them; others say geckos are
Personally I hate all aerosols ugly, or that they are afraid of
since they are . not of natural them, or that they bring leprosy.
origin, and are therefore irritant All these answers are unaccept-
to the breathing system. able. you can have a phobia for
As an alternative to the chemi- anything, but no need to kill the
cal warfare against pests, I fmd subject. Remember that there are
that geckos (Wizgha) are the mariy human beings we hate, or
ideal thing. who are ugly to our eyes; person-
! have often introduced them ally I also feel nauseated when
into my house and have allowed some people talk but we
escape, a survival feature ofthe
lizard groups. They also re-
generate the tail which is lost, and
if the older one i.,; not completely
shed, the new will grow along-
side.
FILFLA LIZARD
Again and again, fbr the
thousandth"tirne, I have to stress
that the Filfla lizard has nothing
to do with double tails. It has
only one, but as anywhere else
th hr h il do not go round killing.
em to enter t oug vent Geckos form part of the b f' modifying the colour of the skin, A Turkish Gecko from Malta,
and windows; they are !deal _ nature, and are not in ranging from pale, through mot- with two tails, where a new one
they
inconvenience.
cause
SHIFT SYSTEM
no
interested inhuman beings. They tied to dark, dependi.qg.ori the grows alongside an incom-
just feed on living insects, and surroundings. pletely shed tail.
leave us alone. Our forefathers used tQ, judge in Malta and Gozo,-an individual
TINY SCALES only by appearance, and branded can appear with two for the
They do not frequent rubbish the geckos as carriers of leprosy, reasons just noted.
dumps or refuse. They only fre- since their skin is irregularly We must put it into our heads
quent walls and rocks, and are surfaced, and thought that if that human beings are not the
among the cleanest of animals. touched, they may contact the centre of the universe they may
Their body is covered with tiny disease. So whenever seen be the most and the
scales, as m characteristic of geckos were persecuted and kil- most highly evolved but this
reptiles. The skin is folded and led without trial. To this day, I does not give them the right to
tubercled in such a way as to give still come. acr?ss people k!lling eliminate living organisms,
an uneven rough appearance to geckos on Irrational conclus10ns. plants or amrpals thatJive around
Just as in the case of lizards, them.
A gecko embryo with. the "'geckos ,can also drop their tail If they do so, it is only human-
eggshell close by; a specimen when touched violently or at- ity that will suffer in the end
from an egg broken when some- tacked, and this wriggles on because the balance of
one was moving stone bricks. its own while make th"eir goes out of phase. It is already
happening in many parts of the
world, and it is therefore already
late enough to start legislating and
conserve and protect nature in all
its aspects.
In reality, they work on a shift '
system with us. Human beings go
around the house during the day
when the geckos are at rest, and
the latter come out when we are
We have evolved amid other or-
ganisms, and even if most of us
may not see the point or under-
stand the place of other or-
ganisms around us, we still,
directly or indirectly, depend on
them.
Let them live, including the
geckos; if you hate them, if you
feel they are ugly or if you are
allergic to them, simply ignore
them, but no need to use your
might and kill defenceless crea-
tures, silently working for you.
of to bed.
They work silently behind
furniture and up the roof and
walls, gulping up numbers of
insects, especially the little