“I miss him. I would like to have him back. Now I have a mouse that wants to eat my stuff”. Said Marc, a traveler from Canada. Howard said they have 7 in their house, and they like them, as they keep everything clean. We encountered one of them in the first night, and let’s say it kept us entertained then and in the following nights.
A Tokay, or more precisely, a Tokay gecko, is a beautifully patterned reptile home to Borneo and around. It can climb and is as fast as their smaller relatives, and we could not catch it, even with our improvised landing net. Why would we want to catch it (they can bite)?
Well, the name “tokay” comes from the sounds they make, or rather calls. Each Tokay has their territory, and they claim it by shouting “to-kay” to the others, preluded my some other sounds. And if they are on or behind the ceiling of your sleeping room, it is loud. Very loud. Listen …
How often do they do it? Well, about once per hour. In five nights I did not succeed building it into my dreams. This is the jungle, right?
Howard from Tampat Do Aman also told us a funny story: Some years ago a German pharma company advertised big in the newspapers that they would buy up Tokays by the kilo, because of their supposed medical value. People ran into the jungle, captured them in masses (e.g. with nets), only to discover that the pharma company had disappeared. So the released them again, in or close to their villages and … now have new neighbors.
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