Tokay geckos (Gekko gecko), a symbol of good luck and fertility, are well known by their ability to produce loud typical vocalization.
Help us to monitor Tokay Geckos in the wild and to reveal variation in their vocalization in relation to their geographic distribution and occupied habitat within and out of their native range.
Do not try to provoke the gecko to produce warning calls. Our philosophy within this citizen science project is to observe geckos with no disturbance. We are collecting the advertisement calls, which Tokay geckos produce spontaneously during the breeding seasons. These calls are consisted of at least two phases: a multi-pulse or rattle phase (the first phase) followed by a bi-note „Ge-cko“ phase (the second phase).
We welcome all residents and travellers to help us not only upload the sounds but also add observations to this project!
Tokay geckos are quite common in houses and around the human settlement, thus it shall be easy to spot one. Once you listen to the typical advertisement bi-note sound „Gecko“, record it preferably via iNaturalist - to record the sound through iNaturalist mobile app click the link below to use a beta testing version of the application.
https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.inaturalist.android - or use the third-party App, such as Parrot or RecForge II. Just please keep in mind to set the recording to the .wav and the highest audio bitrate.
Tokay gecko is widespread in the Indo-Malayan region from northeast India and Bangladesh to southern China, and throughout Southeast Asia. It has been introduced to parts of the United States of America, the West Indies and Madagascar and probably to Brazil.
Tokay geckos have become a subject of illegal wildlife trade for traditional medicine purposes. Although the gecko's curative powers have been dismissed as an urban legend in parts of Asia, still more than one million geckos is estimated to be traded annually. As a result, CITES committee recently decided to include Tokay Geckos in Appendix II, thus population monitoring is more important than ever. Help us to monitor this charismatic species.
For more information visit our website https://geckording.eu and join the Facebook community.
Matyas Adam
Geckording Project Coordinator