Geckos in the Garden

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.

Gecko from underneath

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.