Marbled Gecko in Kinglake

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Sdaji

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I found a Marbled Gecko last month, it wasn't a particularly pretty one and certainly not something I hadn't seen before - I have seen many thousands of them. But I was extremely surprised to find this one where I did, hiding in the wooden locking mechanism of a gate at our place in Kinglake. I assumed someone must have accidentally brought it up with firewood or something. Although given that it was a young one and I found it in March, and Marbled Geckoes lay their eggs early, it seemed that it must have hatched locally, although perhaps from a gravid female which came up in firewood last winter rather than from an established colony. Either way, they're impressive colonisers and the winter snow doesn't kill them! Elsewhere I've seen them actively hunting at around 6 degrees, so I suppose Kinglake's climate wouldn't be too harsh for them, but if that's the case I wonder why they hadn't colonised more widely thousands of years ago. Because it was a novelty to see a gecko in Kinglake, I took a picture (below). I use that gate all the time, exactly one week later I checked the same spot and to my surprise, I saw a gecko. It wasn't the same gecko (this one had an original tail), but it was the same size, perhaps from the same clutch. I have been checking from time to time but over the last month or so I haven't seen any more.
 

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Interesting Sdaj, it's amazing how hardy they can be especially given our cold weather.
 
hi sdaj i have found them breeding every year on the mornington pensular not sure if its colder or not in king lake but they are down whis way
cheers Daryl
 
Hey darryl, they do occur here, and now the rains have changed the landscape a bit and there are lots of insects to eat they will do allright.
The populations down here are more than likely decendants of hitchhikers in the redgum firewood and campervans ect.
.
 
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We have a healthy population in my parents garden in Somerville (Mornington Peninsula) and have also found them in and around Frankston, Edithvale and Aspendale.
 
They're all over Melbourne, I've seen them in the inner, east, north, south east and western suburbs. My brother gets them running around on the walls of his house in south east Melbourne and if you poke around in his garden you'll usually find them. I've seen a fair few of them around Heidelberg and Ivanhoe (just because I've spent a lot of time around there), I have seen them within a short walk of the Melbourne CBD, and I've seen them at most of the houses I've lived in in Melbourne.

Kinglake is much colder than the Mornington peninsula, it's up on top of a mountain. It's a more extreme climate in terms of variability than the relatively stable temperatures closer to the ocean. The winters are long and cold, frosts every morning even when it's late enough in the year to be quite mild in Melbourne. Even in March it is often misty (well, literally up in the clouds) until close to noon, and now we're getting days where it's still misty into the afternoon. I'm hanging out for some more snow :)

Jay: They almost certainly weren't deliberately introduced, presumably they were accidentally brought up in firewood from off the mountain.
 
I've had them in the house in Diamond Creek, just down the hill from Kinglake. We get pretty heavy frosts here as well (obviously not as cold as Kinglake though). I'm guessing they can tolerate the cold as well as any of the snakes and lizards that live in Kinglake (no shortage of Tigers up there).

I
 
No shortage of Tigers? I've seen a grand total of thee, including a baby roadkill so squished I'm not 100% sure it was a Tiger :p How much colder is Diamond Creek than the inner suburbs? I actually didn't realise it was any cooler than, say, Eltham or Greensborough. I think Marbled Geckoes are pretty good at dealing with extreme cold, I've seen them active in Melbourne on cold winter nights, with ambient temperatures around five degrees. I assume their natural southern/high altitude limit is from outcompetition and/or predation rather than an inability to deal with the temperatures. They seem to do well in disturbed habitats though, perhaps because in those situations their competitors and/or predators are absent.
 
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