Re: [gecko]Genus Gekko vocalizations

[Ingo Kober]

Hi Chris, its ONLY G. smithii and G. gecko which do call that loud. The frequency varies. Speaking for Tokays I can say that single males in large enclosures do call most. Bonded ones in large enclosures second most, bonded ones in smaller enclosures less and specimens in inappropriate tanks do hardly ever call. Besides this the highest frequency of calls occurs from February to June. From August to january there are hardly ever any calls. Also some males call more than others..there is considerable individual variation with respect to frequency, loudness and composition of calls. Anyhow, in my house several tokay males can hear each other and this results in each male calling up to 10-15 times a night and 3-6 times at daytime these days. That IS loud and can wake you up. But now its full season. In Winter its very quiet in our house -at least at night (we do have children and parrots ;) ) Many of the other Gekko species  can be quite talkative, but all do have calls which can hardly be heard in a neighbouring room. The members of the petricolus group often vocalize a lot. Their call is a decent twittering. The call of G. monarchus can be slightly louder, but still is a pleasant tok tok tok which never is bothersome. G. siamensis and G. vittatus hardly vocalize at all. They just scream or snarl if grabbed. The call of many -if not all- of the others very much resembles those of Hemidactylus or Ptychozoon species. The only one I am not sure about is G. verreauxii-this close relative of G. smithii and G. siamensis may have a loud call...I just don´t know. Anyhow, this species is absent from the pet trade. Hope that helps Ingo Chris Schweitzer schrieb: Hi all, After having read the recent posts re. Gekko smithii and their loud vocalizations, I came to wonder, do all members of the genus vocalize regularly, the differences being in loudness and how frequently they call, or are there some species which vocalize only rarely or not at all? I have been intent on obtaining G. smithii, but after reading Hilde's description of how loud they are, I am quite sure my neighbors would object. I would like to keep a species that calls, but not if it's loud as a foghorn... Chris _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko