Ex Gecko

Came across this at 2am. An unusual sight, as geckos (chik-chak locally) are so fast. One second after the first ant bite, it should have been ten feet away from the danger. It doesn’t look any skinnier than normal for this size gecko, so I doubt that it starved to death, still plenty of meat there.

It could have fallen, as they sometimes do, despite their incredible adhesion, well beyond their design requirements. But, given the small size of this gecko, approximately 1.5 inches, it is unlikely to have come to grief this way. I have seen many geckos fall and not one came to grief.

Possibly one of the many cats in this area got bored playing with it. I could go on postulating the demise of this sad creature, but I would be overlooking the shear brilliance of these ants. The organization, co-ordination and co-operation is just quite amazing. I will write a thesis one day, on my hypothesis that insects have a cognitive thought process and this image will be a part of it. I know many of you would disagree, but that is allowed.

Dave