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 unaccept­to 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 p~litics, but we

escape, a survival feature ofthe lizard groups. They also ·re­generate the tail which is lost, and if the older one i.,; not completely shed, the· new will grow along­side.

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 ~tors 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 th:~e~t 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 comple~ 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 o~her 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 human­eggshell 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 natu~

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 or­ganisms, and even if most of us may not see the point or under­stand the place of other or­ganisms 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 crea­tures, 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