![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/11\/gecko.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/11\/GEcko2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For non-gecko-familiar folks, they are basically beige with brown spots along their back and a tail banded in the same colors. Their eyes are big and dark. But the most unusual feature is their feet, which look like tiny hands and have tiny suction cups on the \u201cfinger\u201d tips, making it easy for them to cling to just about any surface. To report any gecko sightings around town, click here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Got gecko?<\/p>\n Nyssa Hunt wants to know.<\/p>\n Recently graduating with a master\u2019s in environmental science, she is asking folks to report sightings of Mediterranean house geckos on campus and around town. And has set up a website to track such sightings.<\/p>\n Hunt has been seeing geckos here and there for a couple of years and is intrigued by how the warm-weather lizards survive our winters and whether they\u2019re having a significant impact on the local ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe question how invasive it really is. If we can get a measure of where it really is, its function in the ecosystems, see if it\u2019s impacting the insect populations,\u201d she explains. \u201cBecause what if it\u2019s eating a lot of insects that make them unavailable to other species? I\u2019m not sure whether that\u2019s the case or not. People say, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s just a harmless little lizard,\u2019 but technically \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been documented as one of the most successful, invasive lizards. They\u2019re able to exploit the urban environment. It seems because they\u2019re so good at getting into crevices and hiding. And they just eat bugs, which are everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Hunt has seen geckos in the SimCenter, where she works, and has received reports of them in Davenport Hall and the Administration Services Building, among other spots. She has seen some in doorways, some outdoors near bug-attracting lights and many in bathrooms, which makes sense, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re really sensitive to water loss,\u201d she says. \u201cThey need humidity to survive and, if they can\u2019t find water, they just dry up and die.\u201d<\/p>\n For the website, she\u2019s not asking for people to catch geckos and keep them, she says, only to report where they were seen and take a photo if possible. Any lizard she has caught is simply examined then let go, she says.<\/p>\n So far, the geckos she\u2019s seen and others have reported have all been juveniles, which are about three inches long compared the six-inch adults. That\u2019s weird, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere are the adults?\u201d she asks. But it\u2019s rare to even see a juvenile, \u201cso where did they go? And where in the building are the adults? Are they in the airshafts or what?\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the question of how the lizards survive the winter. Since they originated in the warm Mediterranean region, it seems counterintuitive that they would be able to live in the Chattanooga area, where temperatures can sometimes drop into the single digits.<\/p>\n \u201cReptiles that can\u2019t overwinter usually just die, so they\u2019re finding some place during winter months that\u2019s warm enough,\u201d Hunt says. \u201cWhat seems to be happening is that, in the colder months, they\u2019ll go indoors and find a place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n Right now, she\u2019s just gathering information, trying to determine where the geckos are around town and figure out how they got there.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to see if there\u2019s some sort of connectivity between the places,\u201d Hunt says. \u201cThey\u2019re said to be able to hitchhike on food trucks; that\u2019s part of how they got here in the first place. Either they got here by the pet trade or they hitchhiked on stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n