Hello,
The recent messages re geckos requiring euthanasia and this being
problematic on Hawaiian islands, stimulate 3 comments.
1, A gecko that drops off the ceiling and/or lands other than on its four
feet is probably sick to begin with.
2, Even geckos don't live forever. What does everybody do with the dead
pets? They should be donated (with maximum info on their origin, age etc.) to
some public museum collection.
3, To my understanding, on Hawaii, the colonizing day geckos are
semi-banned not for their endangering the local insects (this is already done
by the local geckos) but because they displace the local geckos. This of course
means that they displace Hemidactylus frenatus, who since arrival in the 1940s
has been displacing Hemidactylus garnotii, who arrived much earlier. The moral
difference between the waves of invasion is that the early invasions were
unintentional (which is natural for commensal geckos), whereas the latest is
supected of having been intentional (artificial).
Hoping to have served, Yehudah
Yehudah L. Werner
Professor Emeritus of Zoology
Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
91904 Jerusalem, Israel
Tel. 972-2-6585874 (direct)
Fax 972-2-6584741 (departmental office)
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Home tel./fax 972-2-5665576
