Tokay geck

[The Snark]

Best pic I've ever taken of one.

 

[stingray]

Beautiful tokay. What morph is it? Looks like an olive granite to me.

 

[The Snark]

Beautiful tokay. What morph is it? Looks like an olive granite to me.

I have no idea. Someone tell me?

 

[OphidianDelight]

Aren't most of your pics of wild specimens, Snark? Are there wild color morphs for Tokays or is that a captive phenomenon?

 

[The Snark]

Aren't most of your pics of wild specimens, Snark? Are there wild color morphs for Tokays or is that a captive phenomenon?

All my encounters are in the wild. This one, barely above a juvenile, grabbed a small rat well larger than itself about a week later. We accidentally startled it so it dropped the rat which was mortally wounded.

 

[Terry D]

Snark, Nice pic!!

As fast as they pop up - and sometimes in good nos, I'd be willing to bet that many of the non-albino and other color morphs of animals available in the pet trade are individual examples of local but already wild-occurring populations.

T

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Now how could small, gentle lizards like Tokays possibly bite hard enough to incapacitate a rat?

 

[The Snark]

Now how could small, gentle lizards like Tokays possibly bite hard enough to incapacitate a rat?

Right. Take a Jurassic reptilian throwback and equip it with a razor sharp serrated knife.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Heh! That makes you wonder what they would be like if sized up proportionately to a Varanid or even Crocodilian scale.

 

[Galapoheros]

I don't really like those things lol, a friend of mine had one of those in the late 1970's and I got a bad impression of it lol. I don't really like bitey lizards much. I think I was only young though so the bad impression fossilized in my head. Maybe I'd get more interested if I had one for a while these days.

 

[The Snark]

Heh! That makes you wonder what they would be like if sized up proportionately to a Varanid or even Crocodilian scale.

Having handled Tokays and baby crocs (on a croc farm in Darwin), I'd guesstimate the Tokay is roughly equal in strength to a croc. Holding a 14 inch croc required 2 hands and was difficult. Holding a 12 inch Tokay with one hand is asking for a chomp. They both slash sideways identically, head butt as Steve Irwin called it, in the blink of an eye.

@Galapoheros... bitey. This is something I have only learned about from these forums and a friend catching a trapped one here. They always run for cover in the wild and never even attempt a standoff. Trapped, as in a terrarium, seems to be the only time they go to guns on people. They are much shyer and more reclusive than the small geckos. When I go out in the carport in the evenings the Tokays immediately hide. It's very difficult to just get a good picture of one.