Sticking with Geckos

 
We have just purchased a pair of Mossy Tailed Leaf Geckos (Uroplatus sikorae) for our expanding collection of reptiles.  At Cleveland Botanical Garden we keep a number of animals and insects behind the scenes to rotate with animals already on display.  When we find something of interest that benefits our biomes, like the geckos, we try to acquire them.  Matt Edwards, our Animal Care Specialist, found a pair and they arrived this week. You can look for them to be on periodic display after they have adjusted to their new surroundings.  Residents of the rainforest in Madagascar, these nocturnal geckos like high humidity and full spectrum light.  These carnivorous tree dwellers will be dining on a main course of crickets and super worms, sometimes with a calcium dusting.  Yum!

Be sure to look for their adapted feet that can cling to almost any surface. They can do this because of millions of tiny hairs called setae that branch into thousands of nanoscale tips called spatulae. These spatulae are only 200 billionths of a meter wide.  The combined adhesive ability of four gecko feet is about 90 pounds. Scientists continue to create new ways to apply the design of gecko feet using what is known as geckomimetic adhesives. The benefits are far reaching since gecko feet work under water and on most surfaces. This technology could replace glue or even screws at some point in the future. So forget that insurance gecko in the commercial and “stick” with the power of science.