Tokay - the story about the Gekko invasion (from outer space?)

[Enki]

The Tokay / Gekko Story

Just to show you what the story is about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V66nsqL88SE

 

It is a story, so if you think TL/DR then just skip it.

 

I first saw her about two days ago. I was sitting early morning at my desk, at my laptop, reading some news. She was over the open door to the other part of the house. The house has three parts, the oldest one, a big hall at the south side, a newer slightly smaller living room north of it, and a much more smaller kitchen + bathroom even farer north.

The door to the main hall is always open. Opened so far that it nearly touches the wall. Perhaps a 6cm gap between the door and the wall. 

 

However the question if it is a female or a male (and got scared away?) is still open, I did not see her/him since a while. She is very very big (which indicates male, but circumstances indicate female). Imagine a nearly black Tokay, very dark brown, at the wall over the door, watching you while you type. At the moment on of the half green half blue Tokay of the Harem of Mr. Big is watching me from nearly same position. One leg and the tail behind the door. The rest of the body above it.

 

So, how did it start? I met my wife about 9 month ago for the first time in RL. Living in her house of course. Took me a while to spot all the small Gekkos (well, I arrived at night and slept long next day, and around 10:00 the roof was to hot to let them walk below it), finally seeing the Waran outside (she was not aware of it) and hearing the big Tokay every night. Took 2 weeks or longer until I finally saw him hiding behind the cabinet. And then once I saw him walking along the wall … magnificent.

 

At the moment I have the impression the Tokay (big Gekko) is hunting the small house Gekko (we have a surprisingly low amount of them, used to be about 40 … now you rarely see one, judging from their calling it is about 5 males, and probably 2 or 3 females per male. But they are super loud, and come close to the bed, kind of annoying).

So, why do I write the long story? I was scared the Tokay would take over the world!! Honestly, one of them, the male suddenly showed signs of superior intelligence!! 

Ah, while I type this, the second Gekko behind the door is now stretching his head out. The small Gekko they probably where preying on, made a one meter diversion around them.

BTW: at night they hunt outside in front of the house where we have a light that attracts many insects. At the moments the Termite queens are swarming … they easily kill 1000ds every night. The floor of the terrace is full with wings.

 

So it all started when I saw the first one - 5 months ago -  my wife was a bit embarrassed. She thought I would hate him (or the small ones) and call her house dirty (which it is) and "leave from her". Well, her name is Sirimon … and for a reason I sometimes call her Sillimon. 

She mentioned, with lowered voice, she believes it is two of them. Two big Tokay … wo. Who would have guessed that.

 

My wife is a bit ambivalent, or even schizophrenic, she always wants to kill them (so she says, but I don't believe a word), because then she cries that 2 or 3 years ago someone stole her Tokay from her house. They sell for around 500TBH … or in a restaurant, yes, some people eat them, for about 1000TBH. Now she wants to kill them, butis scared someone steals them, go figure.

 

So, was it one? Was it two? While I saw them, I never was sure. One looked smaller … but was it?

When I came here again, a month ago. It was certain: we have threeeee!!! The male one with a slight hint of blue in his skin, two female ones which where more greenish than blue. Albeit: now they have adjusted their colour to his colour. Is that not a sign of true love? One of the females was easy to distinguish, as it once lost its tail and the tail was only half regrown.

 

The first week, I had trouble to sleep at night. The Tokay was calling calling calling until he was husky. Consider that: you sleep in a "foreign house" (yeah yeah, my wife, but I basically still live in Germany), every night the Tokay yells "Gekko! Gekko! Gekko!" (usually actually *only* three times in a row).

Ah, that brings me back to the other topic. Intelligence, taking over the world. The male Tokay randomly also shouts during day time. Somehow by coincidence he moved behind the cabinet, and moved so deep down along the wall that he touched the cabinet while calling. Well, I took a nap around 13:00 - 14:00 when this happened the first time. Imagine a Tokay sitting inside of a Piano. Pavarotti is a dwarf in relation to that. Imagine poor Enki jumping up to the ceiling because a Gekko about 1m away, uses the Cabinet as resonance body to kill him. 

 

I looked at him, but could not see him. I know, you wont believe it, it sounds pretty made up, but the true story is: next night he sat on the cabinet in the other room, putting his belly on the roof of the cabinet and again using it as a resonance body. So: was I not rightfully scared that the beasts suddenly became intelligent and aimed for world dominance? 

 

He did that about 5 or 8 days, every day with either this or that cabinet. Oh, I wrote days, I meant nights … But sometimes he killed my well deserved afternoon nap, too! While I have to admit he seems pretty smart to have grasped the concept of a resonance body "over night" … he seems to have bad memory. He luckily forgot everything again, and now only shouts outside "Gekko! Gekko! Gekko!" Three times was the rule … but rules change.

 

So, where was I? Ah, one of the females has only half a tail. Well, about 2 weeks ago it looked like she ran away. Perhaps because he was husky? Who would trust a husky Gekko anyway? Fact is, he was "roaring" all knight long, for days, many days, actually nights and days, but mostly nights … I want to kill them, no idea why my wife wants … she sleeps … sleeps … I don't sleep. So next night the poor fella was husky. Consider they start yelling with two harrumphs … "Harrumph, Harrumph … Gekko … Gekko … Gekko!" so they yell. So, no wonder the half tailed female run away if that Gekko is husky and needs two harrumphs to even start calling … or what do you think?

 

So, as the story goes, 3 days (or did I say 2 days?) ago, we have a big, actually huge, new Gekko in our living room. Dark brown, nearly black. Boldly showing his/her full beauty by walking along the wall, as this house was hers. 

At that time, I did not know, but days later, uh, yesterday? I read up about Gekko behavior. Like eating each others eggs, oh oh, not good. Some people claim females are defending territory just like males. Eat other females eggs etc. It seems there is a big open research issue here.

At the end of the story I will tell you where the female with the half regrown tail ended up (yes, authors trick to keep you interested).

 

So, we call our big Tokay "Mr. Big". Stupid name obviously. The background to that is another story, which I will make very short. During winter/cold season we had a relatively big black frog in the kitchen. Well "had" means, he used to come late afternoon or early evening. Sit in the kitchen sink behind a cutting platter. Coming out later and feasting on the ants waling left and right atop of the sink at the window. Then he would disappear through the sink (as it is a simple pipe going outside to the garden) … surprisingly, we once watched how he tried to go out while another frog tried to get in. Imagine two fat guys trying to enter an elevator and leaving and bumping their bellies at each other. 

So: we started to wonder, was it always 2 frogs and we always only noticed one? After all (no offense to black people) the two black frogs looked exactly the same!! And they ate at the same spot the ants!!! I'm not sure if they really gave each other a high five, or if they simply looked annoyed at each other.

Yeah, the frog. So we call him Mr. Frog. Probably it was a girl? And now we know it is two frogs. In February both stopped coming …

 

So, now you know why we called Mr. Big, Mr. Big. Simple lack of imagination.

 

So, we assumed Mr. Big lost his one female the "Tailless" as we did not see her anymore. 

And then came the "black one" (did I mention I have a crush on sexy black females? Don't tell my wife please!!) walking in Lizard style along the wall, flicking her tail (actually she was just sitting there, pretending if she pretends she could not see me, I could not see her either … I nearly felt for it)

So, after the shock seeing that sexy black female (get over it, it was just a lizard, get your tongues back in … yes pun intended!) I called for my wife.

 

Oh, that brings me back to calling and intelligence. From night over night the husky Gekko, that is probably the reason why he is husky and needs so many harrumphs (well, he is no longer husky, perhaps the diet on the termite queens helped? Does anyone like to participate in a study? We have plenty here!!) Oh, what was I saying? Anyway, from night to night he increased the amount of "Gekko" cries in one shouting. He was at 3 a few month ago, now he managed up to 7 (last night!).

So, I wonder what that is about? Can he count? Is he smart? Is he clever? Does he want to rule the world?

Long story short. After the I yelled for my wife, took up my iPhone, the beautiful brown, nearly black Tokay was gone …

Clever as I am, I guessed right!! He was behind the door! Shortest way to hide. Together with the male one and another female one. So: celebration! We have again 3 Tokay!! The stupid tailless one was replaced by a magnificent probably record worthy super big female one.

 

Out of couriosity, as the cabinet is just 2m away, I looked behind the cabinet. OOOOPS: another two of them.

So now we have at least 5 Tokay Gekko in our house. And he is calling every time 5, 6 or 7 times "Gekko! Gekko! Gekko! Gekko! Gekko!" When he starts calling. What you think? Can he really count?

 

Ah, slightly confused about having 5 big Tokay in my living room, I went outside in front of the house to the terrace, and what did I find? The tailless one! With eggs! So I hurried back to my wife and told her: we have 6 big big Tokay in our house!!

 

Long story short: I live at the moment with six (6) Taiko Gekko. One is definitely male. The question is if the big brown one is a male intruder … he is actually bigger than the old male one. The story that females eat each others eggs, seem only to be true for hobbyists holding them in small compartments.

Oh … and we have about 8 eggs, outside under the roof. The tailless one and _another_female_ are guarding them, alternating with Mr. Big, the male one.

 

Luckily about a week ago, he stopped calling every 15 minutes at night. However listening to the responses I have now a good idea how many Gekko live here … MANY!! 

 

So at the moment while I type this I have 4 behind the door … the two peeking out an hour ago are hiding again. (For the ones who jumped to the end: for some obscure reason, the more GFs he gets for his harem, the more "Gekko" calls he is chaining every night, I really wonder if he can count. Many birds can count: doves up to around 7 - 8, ravens around 8 - 9 and eagles up to 11)

 

P.S. hope yo enjoyed it, moderator: move as appropriated. It is not about farming, but it is a quiet rural place I live in.

[metempsychotic]

Erm, what? 

Edited May 10, 2019 by metempsychotic

[travelling wilbury]

Didnt have much to say did he ?