Four years ago I observed an Asian house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) on our home here in Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW. Uploaded the record to the Atlas of Living Australia as it had a bit of importance at the time to document the invasion wave of this introduced species of reptile. I was quite familiar with Asian house geckos as I spent some years living in Darwin in the NT - where they are absolutely endemic.
I had been sporadically hearing their characteristic day-time chirp, and thinking "Hey ! That sounded like a bloody Asian house gecko (!?!?!?!?!) but can't have been because there are no records of them around here". I figured it had to have been the call of some little SJB bird ("Small-Brown-Jobby" for the non-twitchers) that I have not learned yet. Well, surprise ! There are records of Asian house geckos here now.
That was four years ago nearly to the damn day. I was walking my dogs last night and noticed my second specimen for this neighbourhood. I grabbed a quick image with my phone to prove my identification. Because of the poor lighting, the photos are very poor - but it is unmistakeably an Asian house gecko with a regenerated tail-tip, hunting under the lights of a public building near my home.
Although they are an introduced species, and carry risks of parasites & exotic diseases, I don't see this as a huge big deal. They are exploiting an environmental niche not filled by anything else locally. It is not like there are Lesueur's velvet geckos, Robust velvet geckos or broad-tailed geckos taking insects under the lights of buildings anywhere near here. Sure, there will be small numbers in leafy remote suburbs like Martinsville, but I have lived here most of my life and NEVER seen a single native gecko hunting under lights in the Lake Macquarie area. Asian house geckos will have an impact - as all introduced species of plants or animals do. But at least they are not poisonous to our native fauna like cane toads are. In fact they might help reduce the insect loads a little. I guess we'll have to watch and see - there is no possibility of getting rid of them now.
I had been sporadically hearing their characteristic day-time chirp, and thinking "Hey ! That sounded like a bloody Asian house gecko (!?!?!?!?!) but can't have been because there are no records of them around here". I figured it had to have been the call of some little SJB bird ("Small-Brown-Jobby" for the non-twitchers) that I have not learned yet. Well, surprise ! There are records of Asian house geckos here now.
That was four years ago nearly to the damn day. I was walking my dogs last night and noticed my second specimen for this neighbourhood. I grabbed a quick image with my phone to prove my identification. Because of the poor lighting, the photos are very poor - but it is unmistakeably an Asian house gecko with a regenerated tail-tip, hunting under the lights of a public building near my home.
Although they are an introduced species, and carry risks of parasites & exotic diseases, I don't see this as a huge big deal. They are exploiting an environmental niche not filled by anything else locally. It is not like there are Lesueur's velvet geckos, Robust velvet geckos or broad-tailed geckos taking insects under the lights of buildings anywhere near here. Sure, there will be small numbers in leafy remote suburbs like Martinsville, but I have lived here most of my life and NEVER seen a single native gecko hunting under lights in the Lake Macquarie area. Asian house geckos will have an impact - as all introduced species of plants or animals do. But at least they are not poisonous to our native fauna like cane toads are. In fact they might help reduce the insect loads a little. I guess we'll have to watch and see - there is no possibility of getting rid of them now.
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