A tiny jeweled gecko
Kiwi Conservation Club kids have been handling and learning about native geckos.
A man with a permit from the Department of Conservation to keep and breed geckos came to a Kiwi Conservation Club meeting and showed 11 children five of his tiny reptiles.
The club has an activity most months designed to educate and entertain young people about Marlborough's fora, fauna and environs.
In November members went to the Marlborough Museum and they regularly join Forest and Bird Society members to explore or improve part of the local environment.
In October, they went kayaking and explored the wildlife and history of the Vernon Lagoons, south of Blenheim.
Earlier this year they planted shrubs around the Para Swamp wetlands area, made nesting boxes for riflemen birds, explored a grove of native trees and surveyed bird populations.
Things KCC members learned this month about geckos:
Unlike skinks, they cannot blink and must lick their eyes to keep them moist.
Only 18 of New Zealand's 36 species of geckos have been formally described.
Some native geckos are green, some are brown, some are active at night, others during the day and others active only at dawn and dusk.
Many produce a chirping sound. Green geckos are quite loud for their size and the noise they make is likened to a bark.
Toe hairs give geckos "sticky" feet, allowing them to climb and even walk upside down.
Geckos are omnivores. Although their main diet is moths, flies and other insects, they also eat nectar and the berries on plants like Coprosma.
Geckos can drop their tails as a defence mechanism to escape from predators.
New Zealand geckos are extremely slow breeding and long-lived; some living for at least 42 years in the wild.
At tomorrow's last KCC meeting for the year, starting at 10am, members will help catch and band black-backed gull chicks with a local bird specialist.
This has been a fun event in the past few years, says joint KCC co-ordinator Hazel Monk.
For more information, contact Hazel 578 8299 or email Marlborough@kcc.org.nz.
