# Cook Islands Gecko's



## S&M Morelia (Jan 17, 2012)

Well I recently got back from my Wedding & Honeymoon in the Cook Islands and snapped this picture in our beachfront hut of one of the "local" geckos.

This fella is known as Tuāvaru to the locals or commonly Oceanic Gecko (_Gehyra oceanic_)
They are an interesting little gecko that growls when interacting with out geckos or when scared. 
Another intersting thing is that they don't just drop tails in attempt to aviod predators but they also can shed random patches of skin to aviod capture (as you can see on this one it has done it before)

They aren't native to the Cook Islands (alot of their reptiles aren't) but are from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
thought to have come over to the Cooks when Polynesian canoes/boats arrived thousands of years ago.

Anyways, there's only the 1 picture but thought I'd share anyways


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## lgotje (Jan 17, 2012)

Cool


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## intoxicated88 (Jan 28, 2012)

looks like the one's i see all the time around my house


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## abnrmal91 (Jan 28, 2012)

Very cool plus congrats on your wedding.


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## Darlyn (Jan 28, 2012)

Congratz, about how big is it?


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## animal-mad (Feb 1, 2012)

Very simmilar to what i have aroynd my house we have so many but our little mates Chirp or Bark 3-4 in a row usually i have a pick here of what ours look like kinda spiky little tails and some have black tips on the end (probably where it has droped its tail and grew back black not sure though)View attachment 236606


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## richoman_3 (Feb 1, 2012)

animal-mad said:


> Very simmilar to what i have aroynd my house we have so many but our little mates Chirp or Bark 3-4 in a row usually i have a pick here of what ours look like kinda spiky little tails and some have black tips on the end (probably where it has droped its tail and grew back black not sure though)View attachment 236606



asian house gecko  (pic didnt work btw)


nice looking gecko and great pic !


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## ricky_91 (Feb 1, 2012)

thats not a asian house gecko the asian house geckos are the ones with the spiky tails. and the pic did work


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## GeckoJosh (Feb 1, 2012)

He already identified it correctly lol.

The lack of a claw on the inner toe tells us its a Dtella, the spikey tail is an easy way to ID AHG, unless they have a regen, then you look at the claws if you are unsure

It's a beautiful gecko, Gehyra spp. are so underated imo, just curious how big was that one?


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## S&M Morelia (Feb 18, 2012)

abnrmal91 said:


> Very cool plus congrats on your wedding.


Thanks mate.
They were pretty cool. knocking over things in the kitchen during the night.
Woke up wondering if I left the door unlocked or not haha



Darlyn said:


> Congratz, about how big is it?


The wedding or the gecko? lol



GeckoJosh said:


> It's a beautiful gecko, Gehyra spp. are so underated imo, just curious how big was that one?


That one had a SV of about 15cm.
But they ranged from 5cm to 15cm SV (roughly) from what ones I saw getting around our bungalow.


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