Lost Gecko- 2 Are Secure

After posting the last message concerning our male and female jailbreak crested geckos, I wanted to update everyone on the situuation. As you know, SOMEONE left one of our screen cages unlatched Saturday night while feeding Crested Gecko Diet and this was not noticed until our next feeding this past Monday night and realized the male and female were long gone (poop on cart clued us in).
We found the male within minutes but could not find the female and left the room without a care that she would show up sooner rather than later.

One concern someone had was feeding. Well, I can assure you that there is plenty of food available for any escapees in our facility. We have pan after pan of mealworms sitting on the floor cooling. Pick a worm little gecko, any one out of 60,000!

A larger concern is water. This is the one thing I personally worry about geckos that have made it out of owner's enclosures. We've only (knock on wood) had a small handful of escapees and always found them within a few short days but I think a gecko will become dehydrated without a water source far sooner than they will starve.

So, a conclusion to the store is requested. Monday night, after getting the room all back to normal after tearing it down to find the geckos, I went back down to after lights went off. I flipped the lights on, walked over to the spot the male was found at (in between baby tanks on one of our racks) and would you believe found the female within ONE INCHES of where the male was found. She was sitting not two feet away from her enclosure!

Moral of the story, the best way to find a gecko is to wait until lights go out. Wait about a half hour, turn on the lights, and look high (for crested geckos) or in the middle of the floor (for leopards). Look around objects without moving many things and you should find your gecko. If this doesn't work, check in the morning before lights on, then again the next evening after lights go out again.
Wally

What Does it Mean When You Find Gecko Poop on Your Work Cart

Do you notice little things that seem out of place in your geckos' enclosure or your gecko room. I do. It seems that I am in tune on where EVERYTHING should be. We have a big black rolling cart in the middle of our crested gecko area that we do our shipping, egg checking, feeder cup filling; well everything on. Walking past the cart to get the feeder cups to put Crested Gecko Diet into, I stopped. Taking two steps backward, there it was!

Sitting right in the middle of the cart was a little piece of dried gecko poop. Ewwww you might be saying. To me it said something else... Escapee!

Well the search began (after cleaning up the poop of course). It didn't take long to see that one of our screen cages was left unlatched. Yes, that was me. Two nights ago during another feed, I must have left it unlatched. Now the realization sunk in that were were not missing a crested gecko, we were probably missing two. Checking the cage and sure enough, the search was back on for TWO geckos.

About a minute passed and there was the big male- looking at us, looking at him, looking at us.
A little chasing, a little cursing, a lot of moving stuff from from under stands, more cursing, one quick scoop and he was back in the cage.

That is the good news. The bad news is that the female is still on the loose. I am not so worried as the room is contained and either later tonight or tomorrow she should be found sitting atop one of the racks, looking back at us, and just laughing her head off at us silly humans.

How to Add a Box on Your Facebook Fan Page

Why- All sorts of reasons, let people know something special about you. For us, we have our Blog and our Reptile Show Schedule in a box under our Profile Box. This way friends can simply click on the links in the box and come right here or see where we will be at for the next Show (see ours at Supreme Gecko Fan Page

This is a little tricky but take it slow and you should be fairly easy

1. Get an application from FB called FBML
A)  go to FB's search (upper right hand corner of page)
B) Type in FBML and click search hourglass
C) Click on  Static FBML
D) On left side of FBML page, click on Add To My Page (right under logo)
2. Go Back to your Fan Page
3. Click Edit Page (again, on your Fan page)
4. Find FBML application
5. Click on FBML application's Edit button (little pencil)
6. Give the new Box a title- such as Supreme Gecko Show Schedule
7. Add your HTML code you would like to show up in the box (need a little HTML development knowledge)
8. Hit Save Changes
9. Click on the New Tab, up by Wall, Info, Photos, might need to click the >> (double right arrows)
10. Click and Hold on the New Box (Supreme Gecko Show Schedule on my page) and move it over to the left of the page.

And now you have a new box to tell all your friends about. If this is helpful, leave a comment or become a fan of the Supreme Gecko Fan page (more cool tips will be coming soon)

Oh, no you didn't ...

Feeding the leopard baby wall is normally an easy task for me.  However, they are starting to get bigger and I "the non-reptile person" AM NOT liking this.  When I feed  and water these animals I always have my black plastic spoon available to stop any 'unwanted' behavior from the leopards.  Here I am half way done with the feeding and a little leopard decides it is going to get friendly and crawl up the side of the container.  I gently guide it down with the spoon and put its food in the dish.  It decides as I am filling the water dish to climb again.  I take the spoon and put it in front of the leopard to move it down and it decides to RUN up the handle of the spoon onto my arm!!!!  I of course scream, scaring it so it just goes higher up my arm! Now tears are forming in my eyes and I have goosebumps all over. I grabbed the container and spoon pushing the animal back into its home. After I put the container back on the shelf  I sat down on the stool to recover.   Stupid gecko!  :)

Turtle in a hurry

As a child I remember reading stories about wise old turtles, but wisdom is not an attribute that the turtle always displays! When nesting, a turtle is usually constantly on the lookout for danger and can be very picky about where she will lay her eggs. This was not the case last week for a turtle nesting at Petite Marie Louise.

Now this was not an inexperienced young Turtle, as she had some scratches and damage to her shell suggesting that she had been around a bit. She must have nested many times before, but on that day, she had barely reached the high water mark when she made her first attempt. The sand was of course too damp, and so the nest kept collapsing. She moved on, making two more attempts to nest, with the last attempt being made in the sandy soil, amongst the roots of nearby coconut trees.

Hawksbill turtle nesting amongst the coconut trees, photo Marcel Mathiot.

All the time, she appeared to be in great haste working hard to dig out her nest. The roots of the coconut tree impeded her progress somewhat, until in pity, Marcel reached under her from behind and, out of sight, helped by surreptitiously removing a few of the roots. Obviously she was not wise enough to know that less haste means more speed!

She dug a rather shallow egg chamber and then did not straddle it properly, dropping her eggs, not in the chamber, but on the nest wall where they piled up. Once again, Marcel reached under her and rolled the eggs to where they should have been. She seemed totally oblivious to Marcel’s presence but that was because he kept absolutely quiet and completely out of her line of vision. It also helped that turtles tend to go into a sort of trance and will remain so until they have finished laying.

Eggs piling up along the side, photo Marcel Mathiot.

Having laid her eggs, she spent considerable time covering them and flattening the sand down with her flippers, turning around and around not quite on the spot until satisfied that there was no indication of where the nest actually was. She spent a long time doing this, during which, a young man and his dog came onto the beach. He quickly put on flippers and entered the water, probably to look for octopus.

The dog, however, remained on the beach and although aware of the turtle, was apprehensive of Marcel and so kept its distance. After the turtle had returned safely to sea, Marcel, concerned that the eggs were rather shallowly buried, added more sand and tidied up the nesting site, then he too had to leave.

I wonder why this turtle was in such haste. Maybe she had been thwarted in her previous attempts to lay her eggs and just couldn’t wait any longer.

… News from Pat and Marcel.

Update on turtle activities at Petite Marie Louise

Marcel was quite pleased with his clean up of the beach at Petite Marie Louise, especially as this was followed with a successful turtle nesting. He has been patrolling Petite Marie Louise almost daily, so imagine his concern, when he was told that a turtle had been rescued from a pit above the high water mark there.

He remembered that a while ago someone had actually searched for treasure at Petite Marie Louise, leaving several large holes behind. These holes are well above the high water mark, too far you would think, for a turtle to reach. You’d be wrong!

Turtle struggling to find suitable nesting site in the dense coconut debris, photo Elke Talma

An enterprising turtle did find the hole, but sliding into the hole was obviously easier than climbing out. She probably spent the night there, for when found, she was dirty and exhausted according to the local fisherman who found her. It took some effort to pull her out of the hole and drag her back onto the beach, but she did get safely back to sea. Marcel spent the rest of that afternoon making the pit safe by erecting a barrier to prevent another turtle mishap.

Hole from ex-treasure hunting venture proved to be a trap for unsuspecting turtles, photo Marcel Mathiot

A few days later, he noticed that someone had obviously enjoyed the cleaner beach, in spite of the rain, as they had cut some palm fronds with which to build a shelter. These they left behind, stacked in a neat pile but creating a barrier once again which blocked off access to the turtle nesting places. Marcel removed the barrier!

This beautiful little beach gets a lot of attention for such an isolated spot. Sometimes it is not the right kind of attention. During a routine patrol once more the unexpected happened. While searching the beach for turtle tracks and finding none, conversation and all attention turned towards the pit at the top of the beach. The tale of the unfortunate turtle trapped in the pit was recounted and so the pit was inspected. At first glance there was nothing unusual to be seen and then sharp eyes and keen noses detected more than the presence of palm fronds.

Lying in the pit there were in fact, in excess of a dozen empty jerry cans. Their contents, diesel oil, had been poured away, possibly over the side of a passing fishing boat, and above the pit partly, hidden behind a young palm tree we found a small cache of Turtle and Dolphin meat, salted and ready to be collected by the prospective person or persons. Just as we were feeling good about this turtle season too!

Hawksbill turtle safely making her way into the sea, photo Marcel Mathiot

Sad as this was, there is still much to feel good about, for throughout the local community, there has been a lot more positive interest in the conservation of the turtle. We might be moving forward a tad slowly, but we are going forward and we will succeed.

… News from Pat and Marcel.

Just a little something to think about ...

I was working in the facilty and found myself doing something Wally does.  Talking to the geckos!  Now when Wally does it you might hear - " Hi, there"; " you look great"; or even "boy, you are getting big!"  I only hear Wally get stern with them when he is trying to get them to sit still for pictures.  "STOP IT!"  My conversations are more like - "Please, stay in the container" ; " it's just the cleaning spoon move" ;  or just "stop it". I used to laugh when I heard Wally talking to them.   I think he genuinely talks to them and cares.   Me on the other hand tend to talk when they are moving too quick and I get scared that they will end up in my hands.  Do you think these little creatures hear us and care at all that we are there?  Is it the same thing as people who talk to their plants because they believe it helps them to grow?    Just something  to think about.


Post from Nanette

R. chahoua babies - Not For The Squeamish

Two R. chahoua eggs hatched in the last couple days. A third is still waiting... waiting... waiting. It is swollen but will not hatch. What to do!

Two years ago, our first breeding year with our Pine Island Rhacodactylus chahouas, we had 2 eggs. Neither hatched (even though they swelled up nicely). Last year, 6 eggs and 5 babies. Again, one egg swelled up normally before breaking open but never did. Unfortunately with these three eggs, the babies never made it out. This was certainly frustrating, but par for the course as R. chahouas are know for being a bit difficult in this regard.

This year- two hatched and one was waiting... now 3 days. I knew I did not have much time so I decided to open the egg myself!

This is something I strongly suggest you do not do with your gecko eggs unless you are knowledgeable on the procedure. As well, if all goes well with the egg opening, you may be extremely upset if you find a neonate that is not alive (I say this through experience).

I carefully made an incision around the egg, being careful not to go too deep and not to tip the egg. Ten minutes into the operation, my fears were being realized as the white started spilling from the opening mixed with RED! Did I cut to far? Did I do something wrong? Am I hurting the baby!!!

I slowly peeled back the shell from the now large incision. The first glimpse at the young chahoua lifted my spirit some as it was fully developed. It wasn't until I slowly rolled the shell back and gently touched the youngster that it sprang to life! I had moist paper towel down under the egg. It jumped down onto the towel and lay there for a few seconds. ALIVE! I could not believe it.

The new chewie went right into a deli cup for about an hour as it proceeded to drop the remaining yoke sac.

What a thrill. Again, I strongly suggest that this was a last resort measure as I was sure, from experience, this egg would not have hatched on its own. However, by doing so one new, cute little R. chahoua is now in our care.

Public presentation on photo-ID methods

The Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS), in collaboration with the Kelonia Marine Turtle Observatory in Reunion, Ministry of Environment and Alliance Francaise, are organising a public presentation on “Using images to help conserve endangered marine life”.

This presentation, which is being held at 17:00 on the 12th November at Alliance Francais, is being organised as one of the public awareness components from the project on “Conservation of turtle rookeries on the developed island of Mahé through increased public awareness and community involvement”, which is being funded by Mangroves for the Future.

........You are all welcome to join us!

Scientific presentation for marine scientists on photo-ID methods

The Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (MCSS), in collaboration with the Kelonia Marine Turtle Observatory in Reunion and Ministry of Environment, are organising a scientific presentation on “Using images to help conserve endangered marine life”.


This workshop, which is being held at 14:00 on the 12th November in the training room at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is being organised as one of the public awareness components from the project on “Conservation of turtle rookeries on the developed island of Mahé through increased public awareness and community involvement”, which is being funded by Mangroves For the Future.

Space is limited, so if you wish to attend, please contact Elke 261511/713500 or send us an email.