Love Our Geckos!
Our first experience with geckos in Puerto Vallarta began as an annoying clicking that we thought was someone monkeying around with our window latch. We got up and stumbled around in the dark, saw nothing disturbing and went back to bed. Not to sleep. The clicking continued. In time, we learned the annoyance came from a tiny creature called a gecko. Now we sleep through the night with the same comfort as Grandma’s ticking clock in the echoing foyer, knowing that everything is as it should be. Geckos are out hunting in the dark and still of the night, capturing mosquitoes and other bothersome bugs.
There are many definitions for gecko sounds and logical explanations for them. Scientists have had a lot of fun observing geckos and attempting to explain their social interactions. The geckos you hear in Puerto Vallarta chirp, bark, click, etc to deflect other males, attract females, fight, flirt, announce and claim their territory, and perhaps throw a fiesta for reasons known only to geckos. We have turned on the light at night to see as many as a half dozen on our ceilings and walls.
Geckos are only fearsome to the insects they devour and we are eternally thankful for this. Though one mosquito may do great harm to us, a gecko simply sees him as an appetizer. Geckos eat insects much larger than themselves and if you’re interested in going beyond the images of your own imagination, check out youtube for dramatic videos.
We have been startled during daylight hours when moving furniture or art on the wall, to have a gecko run out with great urgency to locate another hiding place. It is our nature to apologize. Cats will go after geckos, and since cats have nocturnal tendencies, we try to keep Fluffy cornered in bed with us, though it doesn’t always work. Cats will only eat the bodies and leave the head of a gecko for your astonishment in the morning. Geckos in Puerto Vallarta can be seen during the day; they are not strictly nocturnal, but it’s a rare occurrence to see them on a bright sunny day.
If you try to catch a gecko, we must advise against keeping them as pets. Instead consider them your own personal pets who are allowed to roam your home, much like cats do, with no boundaries. You will, in fact, most likely be left holding a wriggling tail, while the rest of the gecko escapes. Not to worry. Geckos are built to be able to release their tail along an actual predestined line, which allows them to flee quickly with nominal harm to the remainder of their body. In their own milieu, the continued thrashing of the tail provides distraction from a predator and allows the gecko to hide once again.
Geckos can live a long time in Puerto Vallarta, up to five years in the wild. So keep them around; they are considered good luck and nothing seems better than old wise geckos protecting us at night.
Que es cómo es.
