An Interest in Geckos During Lockdown Leads to Documenting Introduced Populations on iNat! - Observation of the Week, 8/29/23

Our Observation of the Week is this Caspian Bent-toed Gecko (Tenuidactylus caspius), seen in Azerbaijan by @kseniiamarianna!

“When the first lockdown started in 2020, I was living in Türkiye in an old building, which was home not only to people, but also to inconspicuous yet cute reptiles: geckos,” says Kseniia Prondzynska, who tells me she grew up in Ukraine and Poland and has “always had a soft spot for animals considered to be ugly or scary by most people, such as snakes, toads, spiders, snails, etc.” While she was interested in nature, she did eventually become a translator, as languages are another passion of hers.

As I suddenly had too much free time and not a lot of opportunities to go out, I started paying more attention to my little “neighbors” and I became truly fascinated with them. As the restrictions were lifted, I started searching for geckos in other cities and countries (I’ve always been an avid traveler).

She found iNat in June of 2020 and has been active since - initially observing but then helping others with identifications. 

First I treated my gecko love as a hobby, but over time I realized that there were plenty of unanswered questions considering geckos’ ecology and the way they expand their ranges by natural and anthropogenic means. I accidentally found several introduced gecko populations in the Caucasus and Central Asia and that’s how I decided I would like to become a professional herpetologist. 

I’m currently a PhD candidate at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in Ukraine. Due to the ongoing war in my homeland I’m not able to conduct research in Ukraine, but I’ve been really lucky to receive a grant from European Molecular Biology Organization to continue my work at Bülent Ecevit University in Zonguldak, Türkiye. My research project is related to the population genetics of native and introduced populations of geckos belonging to the genus Tenuidactylus.

Kseniia came across the gecko you see above while searching for lizards at night in Azerbaijan, where they appear to be an introduced species.  

It seems that the geckos arrived there by railway – as weird as it sounds, geckos actually often travel by trains! Since many gecko species are synanthropic (that is, they live close to people), they often get accidentally transported with cargo. If the climate at the destination is suitable for them, they can easily establish a new population.

As you might suspect from their common name, this gecko species is native to the Caspian Sea region, although they have spread to other areas. In their 2014 paper, Hojati and Savasari found that this species’ preferred prey in their study region in northern Iran preferred eating mosquitoes and house flies, and that males are slightly larger than females. 

“They are mostly active at night and I obviously catch the attention of local people while searching for geckos with a flashlight ☺,” says Kseniia (above, with a Large Whip Snake in Turkey). 

Being an extremely shy person, I used to be terrified of these interactions, but now I use them to educate people about reptiles and to answer their questions. There are many misconceptions about reptiles, so I hope I can both help people overcome their fears and save some critters’ lives. I also find it crucial to promote ethical research. I get really upset each time I read a paper in which the authors state they sacrificed dozens of animals for science, while it wasn’t necessary at all. Using modern technologies, the vast majority of research objectives can be achieved without killing the animals. Even if we work with a super common species, like the Caspian Geckos, I believe it’s important to remember that each life matters!

I would like to thank iNaturalist for bringing me closer to nature, helping me to become a researcher and connecting me with like-minded people from all over the world! Love and peace to everyone.

(Photo of Kseniia by Maria Jonker. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.)

- two introduced gecko populations Kseniia found are Tenuidactylus bogdanovi in Kazakhstan, and Tenuidactylus caspius in Georgia. The former can compete with local Mediodactylus russowii geckos, so Kseniia says the population should be monitored.

Posted on August 29, 2023 11:24 PM by tiwane