HOUSE GECKOS

Each night four or five minutes after I turn off the light, in that half-sleep when thinking is on the verge of becoming dreaming, then it comes:

Krrrk krrrk krrrk krrrk krrrk krrrk!

With my bare, high-ceilinged, stuccoed stone walls, the krrrking is loud and shocking. I must begin a whole new cycle of going to sleep and there's a good chance that when I reach the same stage of half-sleep as before precisely the same krrrking will erupt, with the same consequences.

The krrrking critters are cream colored little geckos 2-3 inches long. They climb the walls of all the buildings here and I hear them among Hotel Reef's fancy rooms. However, last year at Komchén I never saw or heard any. I'm guessing that that's because of the several cats there. Here we have fewer cats and more buildings.

For weeks I've been wondering what gecko species I had. Therefore, when this week the long-ago-ordered book AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF NORTHERN GUATEMALA, THE YUCATÁN, AND BELIZE, by Jonathan Campbell, finally arrived, the first thing I did was to open it to the gecko section. Unfortunately, my sleep- disturbing gecko wasn't there. A note in the general info section said that several alien gecko species have been introduced into Mexico, and the book presented only native species.

Back in Hotel Reef's computer room, by using Google's image option and the keywords "gecko, Mexico," I found pictures of my obstreperous roomy. Identification was particularly easy because where the reptile's tail attaches to his body several short, sharp but pliable spines appear. My sleep disturber was the Common House Gecko, HEMIDACTYLUS FRENATUS, shown above.

While Googling up that identification I ran across a page in Spanish listing amphibian and reptile species that have been introduced into Mexico -- Mexico's invasive species. Here I learned that my Common House Gecko is a native of islands in the Pacific Ocean, and that it's found in quite a number of places throughout Mexico. Plus, at least two other introduced gecko species occur here in the Yucatan -- and that's atop three native Yucatec species.

Ten invasive amphibian and reptile species are listed on this page, which is in chart form and thus understandable even for non Spanish speakers. It's here.