Gekko gecko Tokay Gecko
Also known as:
Tokay, Tockay
Ubud, Bali, IndonesiaOctober 17, 1999
Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko)
These large and colorful geckos are plentiful in Bali and throughout southeast Asia, but you hear them much more often than you see them. They make the most fantastically unlizard-like sound whose transliteration resulted in both the word "gecko" and the word "Tokay". When you first hear it, you have to convince yourself that a lizard rather than a small child is making the sound.

These two were among a group of at least five that were munching on moths and such on the beams and roof of an open-air restaurant in Ubud. The one in the first picture still has the proportionally larger head of a youngster. The second one (which was waaaay up on the ceiling, completely upside-down) is a full-sized adult.

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