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Whatever you don't don't mess with this Kung Fu Gecko! It's a good thing that 500px user Shikhei Goh survived taking this awesomely cute photo: Link
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Photo: Ken Bohn / San Diego Zoo
I'm a sucker for New Year baby - you know, like Timeo Goede, who had excellent timing to be born at 11:11 AM on 1/1/11 (Don't mom and baby look so heavenly?)
Well, this one is nifty as well, though perhaps not quite so heavenly -the first animal baby born in 2011 at the San Diego Zoo is a satanic gecko. That's right, there's a gecko named after Beelzebub:
The satanic leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus phantasticus) is native to the incredibly species-rich African island of Madagascar. The horns over the lizard's eyes are what earned the gecko its devilish name.
"All of the leaf-tailed geckos are camouflage specialists," said John Kinkaid, an animal care manger at the zoo. "Some have beards, others have patterns that mimic tree bark or moss, while this one has a tail that looks like a dead leaf. The horns above its eyes break up the silhouette of its body and make it harder for predators to find."
Photo: Rachelwrites [Flickr]
If eyes are windows to the soul, I wonder what kind of tormented soul a gecko has:
Nocturnal geckos have to be able to block out the bright sun during the day while still retaining excellent night vision, which is why they have long zig-zagged pupils that can tightly constrict to let in only pinpoints of light. Interestingly, while humans cannot see colors in dim moonlight, these animals can discriminate between colors and their eyes are calculated to be almost 350 times stronger when it comes to seeing color.
Our very own Jill Harness wrote an intriguing post over at Environmental Graffiti about 10 Incredible Eyes in the Animal Kingdom: Link
Tiny pebble toads have a unique defensive strategy against tarantulas that involves freefalling like a rubber ball.
The above footage is from the "Reptilians and Amphibians" episode of BBC Life, a new epic nature documentary series in the ilk of Planet Earth. The episode also features the incredible Jesus Christ Lizard that walks on water and the unsinkable pygmy gecko.
– via bbc
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Photo: Thomas Ziegler / WWF
I, for one, welcome our new Cat Ba leopard gecko overlord. That fantastically sinister-looking leopard gecko (with the equally cool species name of Goniurosaurus catbaensis) is one of the 162 new species found in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia:
Among the stars in the new list is a fanged frog in eastern Thailand. Given the scientific name Limnonectes megastomias, the frog lies in wait along streams for prey including birds and insects. Scientists believe it uses its fangs during combat with other males.
Another unusual discovery was the Cat Ba leopard gecko found on Cat Ba Island in northern Vietnam. Named Goniurosaurus catbaensis, it has large, orange-brown catlike eyes and leopard spots down the length of its yellowish brown body.
Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California, said he found a tiger-stripped [sic] pit viper in Vietnam described in the report while he was attempting to capture a second gecko species.
"We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper," Grismer said in a statement. "We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species."
Whatever you do, don’t look into the Cat Ba leopard gecko’s eyes … Link
Photo: Quinton Robinson
National Geographic reader Quinton Robinson took this amazing photo of a Madagascar giant leaf tailed gecko that looked at the world with trippy colored eyes!
Yet another amazing photo from the Your Shot Daily Dozen selection by photo editor Susan Welchman: Link [September, week 2]
