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Culpeo-Fox — The Children Of Smaug
Published: 2014-07-16 21:42:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 12390; Favourites: 650; Downloads: 0
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(sorry for the massive re-uploads. dA wouln't notify you my uploads lately (or they do it with a horrible delay), which currently annoys the hell out of me.)
Hemidactylus frenatus caught in the wild, Thailand 2014.
Ah, my beloved Common House Geckos....If there is one thing that I'll always miss about Thailand (besides snakes and pick-up-driving) - it is these guys. Incredibly common there, we basically share our home with them, where they keep the house clean of all kinds of unpleasant creepy-crawlies. It might sound odd but they always felt like tiny siblings to me since i grew up with them. The loud "djib djib djib" sound they do in the night, the speeding little shadows across the walls to catch their prey, the eggs that i would occasionally find in narrow gaps.
The one you see here is Nr. 1 out of seven different specimens that i caught while being there recently (and please ignore my dirty Gollum nails). Nr. 1 was a very pale coloured, pregnant female (with pregnant females, you can see the eggs hazily shine through their skin). When i was little i would always catch these as soon as i saw one; i even developed some kind of tactic to do that (that actually is quite effective! You just have to "jump" near the wall and pretend to reach them - they would sometimes try to run, but very often, they actually rather let themselves fall from the wall and land on the ground with a "SPLAT!"-sound (which is why i also call them Platschies 
There are so many curious stories that i could tell about these guys. How about telling one with each photo that I'll upload of these (because six more of the other six specimens will follow).
Curious Fact about House Geckos Nr. 1.
It is said that they fall into some weird kind of trance when you jam them behind your ears (like a pencil). I don't even know why but every Thai i spoke to insists that it's true. I never tried that so far and doubt that i ever will - because i have no idea how i should get this done.
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Comments: 57
I absolutely love geckos! They're like a cheap pest control option, once I had an insect problem, but after releasing a few geckos in my home, that cleared right up 
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I never thought to try that when I had my house geckos, although the ones I had were African, so maybe putting them behind my ear wouldn't work...
One of them was a master escape artist, and any time he did, we noticed that all the spiders we usually took care to keep squished mysteriously disappeared. Then we'd find the poor guy behind some warm electronic in the house (usually the microwave) looking like he could use a few crickets, so we'd feed him up and he'd be fine. Then of course the spiders would be back, and a few months later he'd escape again...lol.
Lovely photograph by the way, I really look forward to seeing the other images you post of them.
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Is that a gargoyle Gecko?
(I only have Cresteds and Leopards of the gecko variety)
Super, super cute
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Haha! Excellent reference, here
That sounds like a lot of fun, having them in your home, like a little symbiosis up close.
Behind your ear? 
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We have bunches of little lizards around here, being that this is the desert, but none are quite as interesting as geckos. We do, however, have Gila Monsters and Horned Toads. The latter are fun to catch and carry around for a little bit.
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I'm guessing the former aren't?
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Hah, no. They're venomous, despite being super chill.
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Cute little thing, pity we have only spiders here to do their role
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Watch out, 'cause that little thing will turn out as an overgrown lizard with wings and fire and will most likely take over your home and gold. It may also attempt to eat you up!
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Ich bin - der Tod! *pieps*
Süßi.
...und Geckoaugen sind nochmal eine Welt für sich.
Irgendwann werde ich mir auch Geckos anschaffen. So. Schon viel zu lange geplant/gewartet.
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(das da oben ist übrigens das Weibchen, das du im Film gesehen hast 8D )
...ach, ich weiß noch, wie absurd glücklich ich war, als ich damals bei dir dieses Gecko-Buch gesehen hatte.
Denn ja, Geckos gehören einfach dazu. Ich will mir auch schon so lange welche dazuholen. Ein Madagaskar-Taggecko war immer ein Traum (nebst diversen anderen. Und den Schlangen natürlich).
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This is great! of conventional photography, the luxury to do!
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We have thousands of tiny white and brown geckos running about practically every house and building here in Australia, theres no shortage of them but their still very cute
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I remember when i found lizard eggs and they didnt hatch when they were supposed to bu i kept them for awhile, turns out they were actually gecko eggs! out of six eggs only two didnt make it
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Hehehehehe
I Love tha photo and the title
So wowesome!
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Have you been watching Lord of the Rings recently? I do like that title. And that's a pretty interesting belief! Different cultures have such intresting stories and customs. I'm not in the US, but you still hear about the urban legend of alligators in the sewers. Maybe you've heard of the beast of Dartmoor as well.
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No, i haven't - yet, one of the things i i remember best about the movie Smaug's design are his eyes, which do look exactly like the eyes of these geckos.
And yes, Dartmoor and Exmoor beasts, of course! I was quite much into cryptozoology when i was younger so these are a indeed a houshold name to me.
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Adorable!
As a child, house-lizards were one of the most exciting aspects about going on holiday abroad. It completely amazed me that people just... had wild lizards living in their houses.
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I love the title for this piece! I swear my leopard gecko thinks he's a dragon, so it's easy to imagine these little guys having major attitudes too.
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Somehow that doesn't seem so appealing to me.
Maybe they first put brightly coloured frogs behind their ears and fell into a trance themselves
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I have no idea whatsoever about this. My mother was the first to tell me this when i was little. Thought that she was shitting me, therefore asked others. And they'd say the same. Perhaps they all were trying to shit me but on the other hand, Thais always go wild with their stories about animals. My mother for example would still insist with all her belief that a king cobra will hunt you until it gets and kill you for the rest of its life if you ever dare to kill its mate (though, i must say, i kind of like this one.)
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Ooh I do like that one.
Would make a good little comic thing
But yeah. WHo knows. People are weird about things like that...heard from a friend of a friend of a nephew of a brother's former roomate and nobody wants to be the one who disbelieves or somesuch
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Well. That's an odd fact. these things are adorable. We have loads in USA, in Texas.
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Yeah, I've read that they were introduced there as stowaways. They are, however, originally native to Southeast Asia.
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Well, that's neat! 
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Yeah, though i also heard that they are quite the thriving invasive species, causing damage to the endemic gecko species. :/
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these guys and the indigenous species here have been on good terms around my house xD
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Normally, they are pale beige-coloured but some do show a variaty of stripe patterns.
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very cool :3
I really love this little ceature! <33
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Geckos sind großartig, rundum. Diese wunderschönen Augen, diese unglaublichen Füßchen! Und so klein! Und das Foto ist toll, danke dafür!
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Man muss sie mit unglaublicher Sorgfalt händeln; die Haut ist, anders als bei manch anderen Reptilien, nicht straff und reißfest, sondern ganz im Gegenteil sehr zart und verletzlich. Und ja, besondes die Füßchen sind äußerst fragil - wenngleich nicht minder faszinierend. Ich liebe meine Geckos.
(und wieder eine Headsupnote bezüglich deiner Mail - nein, die habe ich nicht vergessen.
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Oh, danke für den Nachtrag. Sie haben schon aber Schüppchen, oder darf ich mir das jetzt nicht als einzelne, kleine Plättchen vorstellen? Mehr so wie Molche in etwa? Ich habe zwar wirklich viel Getier in Händen halten dürfen, aber Geckos sind mir nur als kleine, huschende Wandkleberlies in Erinnerung. Faszinierend und völlig verständlichermaßen liebenswerte kleine Tierchen. Und wie gesagt, super Foto!
Und keine Hektik wegen der Mail, alles ist gut von meiner Seite aus, Hauptsache es ist alles angekommen (was bei yahoo mitnichten eine Selbstverständlichkeit ist ...). Es sind ja alles Sachen für mich privat die weder weglaufen noch anbrennen und bevor ich Kapitelillus haben will, sollte ich das Buch erst mal fertig schreiben *hust*! Und: was essen
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Jam them behind your ears? Like a pencil? That just sounds weird to me... As a Floridian though, when I was a kid my siblings & I would catch Cuban Anoles, & get them to clamp down on our earlobes to make "earrings"...their jaws & teeth weren't strong enough to draw blood, so it hurt neither of us - when the lizards were fed up with hanging there, they'd disengage & jump off you.
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