Meet Waldere!

As promised, here are some pictures of Waldere, my new Malaysian Golden Gecko. I'm fairly certain he's male (if not, I guess his name will change to Kundalakesi, but for now we're gonna' go with the male one), though these guys aren't quite as easy to sex as some of the other gecko species. He's a bit skittish, but much more friendly than the anoles are. Once on my hand, he seems content to just sit there and check out his surroundings, whereas the anoles will freak out when I have to remove them from their terrariums for cleaning and the like.

Did you know that there's only one known material in existence that a gecko's footpads will not stick to? It's Teflon. Their footpads, covered in setae, which are in turn covered in spatulae, use the attractive force of van der Waals interactions to adhere to almost any surface. But they cannot climb Teflon, because it is naturally low in van der Waals interactions. In addition, with a good bond, the attractive forces in the gecko's footpads are strong enough that a gecko can hold up about eight times its own weight using just one toe to adhere to smooth glass. And nocturnal geckos (like the Malaysian Golden) can perceive colors about 350 times more accurately and distinctly than humans!


( More under the cut. )