- [Coyote] Eyeshine right
there on the side of that tree. - Where?
- Okay, I'm just gonna go for it.
- Yeah. - Got it!
- You got it? - Yep, got him,
got him, got him. Oh. (grunting and screaming) (tribal music) Tonight, we are
deep in the heart of an agricultural fruit grove
located in Southern Florida which is an ideal ecosystem
for invasive lizards. Thus far, we have found
and safely captured a very impressive
veiled chameleon. And while we would love to
release it back into the wild, this lizard is a
reptilian invader so it will be donated
to a wildlife sanctuary where it will serve as
an educational example of an animal that does not
belong in this ecosystem. In addition to chameleons, this fruit grove is also known for having an established
breeding population of tokay geckos. These noisy reptiles are
famous for their loud bark which sounds like
to-kay, to-kay, hence the name that these
lizards have been given. And that right there is
a perfect little crevice. Check this out, for a gecko. Nothing in there now, I guarantee it's up here
hunting in the trees somewhere. All right, well, we're
gonna continue the search and hopefully find one. Like most gecko species, the tokay never wanders
far from its hiding spot which is often a deep
crevice or hole in a tree. This refuge combined with
a notable burst of speed, provides these nocturnal
creatures with a
quick escape route in the event that a larger
predator approaches. What I'm doing is actually
searching for eyeshine, these geckos eyes will
reflect back in my flashlight. What I wanna do is
just keep the light close up to my nose like this, and I'm looking for
those little eyeballs to spark out in the darkness. Spotting eyeshine definitely
gave me the advantage of targeting a lizard
from the distance, however, sneaking up
quickly and quietly, without the lizard noticing and in turn bolting
into its escape hatch was a much different scenario. Follow my flashlight here. This right here,
there was a gecko up in the little
crevice of that tree. I cannot see it now, duck back, let me go up and see
if I can catch him. Oh! (grunts) They are quick, I thought he
went down the side of the tree. It's like as soon as they
hear the footsteps coming, they are off. All right well that
was just a small one, we're definitely looking
for something bigger but getting any gecko up close
for the cameras is a value. All right, let's keep searching. Here we go, right there. - [Mario] Did you get it? - Nope. Oh, there's a hole right here. He just went down into
the hole in that tree. Several missed attempts
brought with them a heightened sense
of frustration. Yet I refused to give up and
my persistence finally led us to the moment I had
been waiting for, a gecko that I could see,
but who couldn't see me. Eyeshine right there on
the side of that tree. - Where?
- Gecko, just curved there on the side. See that V-shaped tree?
- Yeah. - Come up, come up, come up. There's the tail,
Mario do you see it? - [Mario] Yeah, I got nothing. - [Coyote] Okay, I'm
just gonna go for it. - [Mario] Yeah. - Got him!
- You got it? - [Coyote] Yes, got
him, got him, got him. Check this out, he's
trying to bite me already. - [Mario] Hang on, hang on. - [Coyote] Come on in to the
shot, take a look at that. - Nice.
- There it is. That is a tokay gecko. All right, let me
slowly peel this guy up and off of the tree. That is about as good a
grab as I can possibly make. Let me just kind of peel
his little toes off there. - Man!
- All right buddy. - Man that's a big gecko.
- Whoo, that is a good gecko. He's just clinging
onto the tree. Got you, there we go,
and he is all chompy, trying to get my
fingers in his mouth. All right let me
crouch down right here. There you have it. Look at you, good looking. My hand is shaking right now. We have had many misses
tonight and unlike frogs, these geckos do not stay
still in flashlight shine. They quickly zoom around
the side of the tree. Wow, a perfect specimen. Look at the coloration,
grayish blue, light blue, and all of that
copper speckling. Oh it's gonna make,
oh, oh I hear you. You hear that bark? That's what we've been
hearing calling all night and that's actually
a defensive warning that if you get
your finger close, I'm going to give you
one very painful chomp. And go ahead Mario and
zoom in down the gullet. That is an impressive mouth. Look at the interior coloration, black with a little
bit of bright red, almost aposematic in design. Of course we know
geckos are not venomous, they are not poisonous,
but this species, specifically has
very sharp teeth and can give you one
very painful bite. Let me go ahead and
turn its body like this. You can get a good
luck, oh, whoo! Oh boy, he's going at
me, he's going at me. All right trying to get a
bite going there, no buddy. You can hear that little bark. They are incredibly aggressive. Ooh ooh, that's too
close to my finger. - That came out of nowhere.
- Yeah, strong, right? They will explode
into action like that. Now the males are
larger than the females and they're also incredibly
aggressive, very territorial, and there's a good chance
that this tree right here is this little
Godzilla's domain. I'm gonna try to show
you the side of its body without taking a bite. All right you're
gonna stay calm? I'm hoping like the
turnip-tailed gecko that it will just go into
a state of (squeals). Sometimes they will play dead, then you loosen your grip and
then they try to get away. But in this instance, the
tokay is all about the fight once it realizes that
flight is not an option. You can see my hand
shaking a little bit there. Let me try to get it
completely stable. Whew, deep breath, do not
want to be bitten, yet by the tokay gecko.
- Whoa, what do you mean yet? - Oh, I got a little bit of
history with the tokay gecko that we'll get into in
a second but first-- - [Mario] Is that with that
bandages on your finger? Is that the history?
- No, no no, that's a snapping turtle bite. The tokay gecko bite is not
as bad as a snapping turtle but it is incredibly painful. The tokay gecko is
a voracious predator and they will eat pretty much
anything they can come across, other lizards, insects, even
baby mammals, small mice, baby birds, all make fair
game for this predator. Now let's look at one
of the hallmark traits of this gecko, its feet. These toes are all covered
in these little sticky pads. Now at the tips of the
toes they do have claws and it's a combination of
the claws and the sticky pads that allow them to climb
over virtually any surface. Whether it's up the side of
a tree or even across glass, this gecko can
stick to anything. Now the tokay gecko
has long been one of my favorite lizard species. And when I was a kid,
when I was 10-years-old, I wanted one of these as
a pet more than anything. At the time, my mom didn't know
anything about tokay geckos and she said, if you get
straight As on your report card, I'll let you get one as a pet. So what did I do? I studied and
studied and studied, got straight As
on my report card and the day my mom took
me to the pet store to get one of these lizards, the guy that owned
the pet store said, not only do these lizards give an incredibly painful
bite and hold on but they also eat
a lot of baby mice. And my mom said, no way,
we are not getting a lizard that we're gonna have
to feed baby mice to. So lo and behold Coyote
left the pet store that day with no pet lizard. But now, looking back
on it in hindsight, I could definitely see
that a lizard like this probably did not
make the best pet. I'm sure a lot of you guys out
there watching this episode, thinking to yourselves,
this is such a cool lizard, I want one of these lizards. Honestly guys, the tokay gecko, unless you have the
means and the experience to take care of
it, not a good pet. That bite is powerful and
they are voracious predators, you have to feed
them constantly. I know I keep focusing
on this whole, oh the bite is really bad,
they bite and hold on. It's just a gecko, is
it really that bad? I don't know guys, I've never
been bitten by a tokay gecko. I've been bitten by
many lizard species, but I'm pretty curious. How bad is the bite
of the tokay gecko? And if I was still 10-years-old
and in fourth grade, is this something that
would have latched onto my finger and not let go? I know what you guys
are all thinking, Coyote, are we gonna
enter the bite zone with the tokay gecko? I think we better try it out. You guys ready? - [Mario] Are you
seriously gonna do this? - I'm gonna do it, I'm just
very curious at this point. This is an intentional bite to see how painful is the bite and are they truly the
bulldog of the gecko kingdom? Or is this a lizard gonna
bite and then let go? So if you guys are
ready, it's time to enter the bite zone
with the tokay gecko. - [Mark] Hey Coyote,
do you want me to spoil the ending for you? It's gonna be bad. - Yeah, well, here's
what's gonna happen. The lizard's either
gonna bite and let go or it's gonna bite and hold on. The contingency plan is
I'm gonna set it down on this log, let go
of the lizard's body, and see if it will then
let go of my finger. If not, I'm just gonna
have a reptile locked onto one of my appendages
for the rest of the scene. All right, you guys ready? - [Mark] You sure about this? - Yep.
- Okay. Mario, you have a good shot? - Uh huh.
- All right, it's all you. - This is what we call
curiosity chomped the coyote. I'm Coyote Peterson
and I'm about to enter the bite zone
with the tokay gecko. Ready? One, two, three. (grunting and screaming) Aha! A bite and let go. Yeah, go ahead and zoom in
on my finger there Mario. And that is the result
of a tokay gecko bite. - [Mark] I knew this
was gonna happen. Why did you need to do that? - Curiosity guys, I had to know. Is the bite of the tokay
gecko really that bad? Did 10-year-old Coyote
deserve to have a gecko? He got straight As
on his report card. Honestly guys, I have
to say thanks to my mom for not letting me get
one of these lizards when I was a little kid
'cause I can just imagine how bad it would have been
if this creature had latched onto my finger and
it didn't let go. So if you guys want suggestions as to what lizard
makes a good pet, the leopard gecko and
the bearded dragon are both excellent choices. When it comes to tokay geckos, let's just go ahead and
leave these guys in the wild. Now unfortunately for this one, I know buddy, we can't let
you back into your tree because you are an invader
here in South Florida. But the good news is that this
lizard is gonna be donated to an educational
research facility where he's then gonna become
an ambassador for his species. But this certainly
was an epic evening, finding invasive
lizards and getting this awesome tokay gecko up
close for the cameras. I'm Coyote Peterson,
be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on
the next adventure. Ooh, yeah that's a bloody bite. The invasive reptile
population in South Florida continues to be a
topic of conversation amongst wildlife specialists
and conservation advocates. It is true that most of these
species, like Burmese pythons, tegu, chameleons, and
even tokay geckos, have established strong
breeding populations and unfortunately are
likely here to stay. If you ever visit
the Sunshine State and encounter a
non-native animal species, the best practice is to
take note of your location, and quickly alert Fish
and Wildlife Services as these professionals are
working round-the-clock to help rebalance
the native ecosystem. If you thought catching a
tokay gecko took some skill, make sure to go back and
watch where this episode began as I climbed up a tree
to coax down a chameleon. And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail. (Coyote grunting) Oh, so close. (wolf howling)
(birds chirping)
