tucson.social
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • Create Community
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
fossilesque@mander.xyz to Reptiles and Amphibians@mander.xyzEnglish · 2 years ago

Who am I? Found in a botanical tropical garden in England. Not native, of course.

mander.xyz

external-link
message-square
12
link
fedilink
25
external-link

Who am I? Found in a botanical tropical garden in England. Not native, of course.

mander.xyz

fossilesque@mander.xyz to Reptiles and Amphibians@mander.xyzEnglish · 2 years ago
message-square
12
link
fedilink
alert-triangle
You must log in or # to comment.
  • Salamander@mander.xyzM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Uff, non-native makes this very tough 😅

    In the Gekko family, for sure.

    I think it is in the house gecko genus (Hemidactylus). It resembles images of Hemidactylus platyurus, but the pattern in your image is a bit more broken than in many of the images that I can find. The whites look whiter in your image. This might be due to the light, white balance, and true color variability. So it is a tough call!

    If it is indeed this species then it could have come hidden in a plant that came from a nursery in Florida (where it is invasive) or somewhere in Asia (where it is native).

    • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 years ago

      He lives in a giant biodome and was likely placed there on purpose. :) They’ve got all sorts of little critters in there that you can occasionally stumble into. A house variety seems fitting.

      • Salamander@mander.xyzM
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 years ago

        Ooh, that changes things. I was thinking along the lines of what might have accidentally gotten there. But if it was put there in purpose then that opens up all kinds of exotic geckos. Was this biome associated with plants of some specific area of the world? Or just general tropical?

        • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          General tropical! It’s got different areas in different sections. It’s called the Eden Project!

          • Salamander@mander.xyzM
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Wow, that is a very cool project. I had never heard of this! I will go check it out one day _

            Looking into it… I do think it is a Hemidactylus platyurus that was introduced by accident with the plants when the Eden Project started.

            The gecko you have encountered could be a descendant of Tommy, the first wildlife guest: https://www.eden-project.co.uk/tommy.htm

            I found a few other encounters with what appears to be the family and friends of this gecko, also at the Eden Project:

            https://www.flickr.com/photos/hh27/6283695173

            https://twitter.com/edenproject/status/979433244394434560

            https://twitter.com/EdenProject/status/886314632784293891

            https://twitter.com/EdenProject/status/1484949097215897608

            Comparing the Flickr image with this image of Hemidactylus platyurus, and to other images I can find online, I think that it is a very close match…

            • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              2 years ago

              Haha! Amazing! He was in the lower tropics by a waterfall. They’re actually opening up Edens around the world!!

              https://www.edenproject.com/new-edens

              • Salamander@mander.xyzM
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                Oh cool! England is the closest to me at the moment, though :p

                Found some sources that claim the species is Hemidactylus mabouia and that they were introduced on purpose for pest control. That is not unlikely, but I can’t an official document or statement from The Eden Project describing the species that they introduced on purpose!

                https://twitter.com/Cercopithecid10/status/1524694286813605888

                https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/green-anole-10-july-2018-at-the-eden-project.406325/

                (And, sorry for all of these Twitter links that are now hardly accessible without an account 😠 )

                • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  I know there is a display with plastic replicas of the domes denziens. I’ll have to take a closer look next time as it’s a local favourite spot. :) The articles I was poking around at were very generalist and you dug up way more than me.

      • tchotchony@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 years ago

        If it’s in a biodome, I’m sure they’d be thrilled to give you a bit more information if you mail them your question. Please report back with the reply!

  • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    “I AM THE RUST.”

Reptiles and Amphibians@mander.xyz

herpetology@mander.xyz

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !herpetology@mander.xyz
Visibility: Public
globe

This community can be federated to other instances and be posted/commented in by their users.

  • 1 user / day
  • 1 user / week
  • 33 users / month
  • 296 users / 6 months
  • 1 local subscriber
  • 1.02K subscribers
  • 125 Posts
  • 241 Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • Salamander@mander.xyz
  • BE: 0.19.12
  • Modlog
  • Legal
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org