Some ripe pineapples in a fruit dish on our kitchen counter were attracting ants and a few flies, which were in turn attracting a gecko who had parked himself in the dish for the last couple of days. Deborah had apparently forgot this when she pulled a lime out of the dish and was quite startled when the gecko materialized where her hand had just reached. She shrieked and dropped the lime (the limes are big here – the size of oranges), which most likely landed on the poor lizard, who attempted to escape the citrusy bombardment by quickly jumping onto the wall. Deborah soon laughed with embarrassment at her overreaction as she realized it was just the gecko, which she then noticed lacked a tail. She thought little more of this until she reached for her glass of iced tea only to find a gecko tail floating in it. And it was still twitching. Some species of geckos have evolved this amazing escape mechanism that allows them to eject their tail when threatened, leaving any predator with a mere extremity to munch on as opposed to a more satisfying meal of whole gecko. The tail continues to twitch for several minutes after being dropped as part of the defense mechanism, as it helps to distract the predator. I’m not sure how long it takes for the gecko to grow back its tail, nor did I investigate the effect of a disembodied lizard tail on the flavor of iced tea.
Iced Tea with Gecko Tail
No comments:
Post a Comment