Notes from a Lazy Urban Homesteader & Amateur Naturalist
Here’s the smallest gecko I’ve ever seen. Everything about this creature was tiny, including its scales, which were so thin we could see through them to catch the outline of a beating heart (it’s the bulge on the left side of the gecko’s chest). Read more …
Madagascar has many species of day geckos, so called because they’re diurnal (active during the day). We’ve seen several lived and peacock day geckos while in the rainforest, and here in Isalo we met a new one: the thick-tailed day gecko. I love its mottled coloring and the slight blue tinge to its tail.
I’ve seen animals that are pretty good at blending in with their surroundings before. Caterpillars blend in with tomato leaves, squirrels with browning oak leaves, and sparrows with gray sidewalks. (Hmmm, maybe that last one doesn’t count.) But this mossy leaf-tailed gecko takes the cake. Read more …