These nocturnal, barking lizards have invaded Georgia and enjoy Macon’s nightlife scene
There’s a new gecko in town, but it’s not selling car insurance.
The barking pink lizards, using their sticky toe pads, perch along walls of downtown alleys at night, waiting for prey.
Their pale, almost translucent, skin has braille-like bumps and their lidless gray eyes are bisected by vertical pupils.
Though Mediterranean Geckos are not native to Georgia, they have spent the past decade or so making a home here.
“They’re established pretty well around most of the urban areas in Georgia now,” John C. Maerz, a wildlife ecologist for the University of Georgia, told The Telegraph. “They’re increasing in their commonness throughout the state.”
The geckos are nocturnal. All of them are females that reproduce asexually, so “if you move one, you can start a population,” he said. “We move them around accidentally” when shipping containers and transporting plants.
The geckos lay several clutches of two eggs throughout the summer. Sometimes, they have communal nests with several laying their eggs together under bark, in cracks or in moist soil, according to the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.
The lizards apparently enjoy Macon’s downtown nightlife.
“They have a clear affinity for human-built structures,” Maerz said.
What’s more, they are vocal and will squeak or bark during territorial disputes or to ward off a predator.
The Mediterranean Gecko is originally from Southern Europe and Northern Africa and is the only wild gecko in Georgia. The species, first spotted in America in the early 1900s, is widely established in Florida and is spreading northward.
Over the past decade or so, the gecko has been reported in Savannah, Athens, Atlanta, Coffee and Berrien counties here. It also has been reported in South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and other tropical places worldwide, according to its profile on Savannah River Ecology Laboratory’s website.
The pink lizards, which grow four to five inches long, eat a range of insects and pests from moths to cockroaches. Maerz said he knows of some places where they have been deliberately introduced to apartment buildings.
Generally, when a non-native species of reptiles is introduced to Georgia, there are concerns about what effect it might have. However, the Mediterranean Gecko appears to be benign.
A cold-blooded invader
Tegus, three to four feet long black and white lizards that nosh on eggs of quail and the endangered gopher tortoise, have long been a problem in Florida.
The mammoth lizards recently made it to Georgia.
Since last summer, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has documented at least four adult tegus and 20 sightings in the stretch of forest, farmland and sandy-bottomed streams from Lyons to Reidsville.
Recently, a few of the black and white adult lizards were captured in Tattnall and Tombs counties.
The lizards are voracious eaters and aggressive predators with powerful jaws and sharp teeth. Adult tegus can weigh up to 10 pounds, according to the DNR.
The lizard, from Argentina, poses a substantial threat to some of Georgia’s native and endangered species, Maerz said.
The extent to which the lizard has spread to Georgia is not yet known, but efforts to trap them are underway.
“It’s not something we want to see,” Maerz said. “If we can’t find a way to get a handle on it, they’ll continue to spread. They can do some serious damage to amphibians and ground nesting birds.”
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is encouraging people to report tegu sightings in Georgia online.
This story was originally published October 2, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
