Tourist Info

Tokay Gecko

With its blue-grey body sporting orange or red spots, the distinctive looking Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) is the second largest of the gecko species. They can grow up to 40cm and 300g and their typical lifespan is 7-10 years.

Their native habitat of this nocturnal gecko is rainforest trees and cliffs, but they also frequently adapt to human habitations, roaming walls and ceilings at night in search of insect prey.
We are delighted to have a couple of Tokay Geckoes roaming around our restaurant, and some appear in our rooms from time to time.

Their mating call, a loud croak which sounds like ‘tokeh’ or ‘gekk-gekk’, gave them their name.

Although the Tokay Geckoes are renowned for their aggressive disposition, the ones we encounter appear to be incredibly timid animals towards humans.

It is considered lucky in Cambodia if a Tokay lets out 7 or more calls, and unlucky if there are fewer than 7 calls.
Sometimes a Tokay loses (part of) its tail during fights with other Tokays. Their tails will grow back. Spotting a two-tailed Tokay Gecko is considered good luck.

Tokays & science

Tokays have been used extensively to study the selectively adhesive properties their feet. These studies have shown that geckos can cling upside down to polished glass. The method – Van der Waals force (intermolecular bonding) – by which the Tokay Gecko accomplishes this, is hidden in its feet.

The pads at the tip of a gecko’s foot are covered in microscopic hairs. Each of these hairs splits into hundreds of tips only 200 nanometers in diameter. By using these tiny hairs that can adhere to smooth surfaces, geckos are able to support their entire body weight with a single toe. A single toe!

This Van der Waals force is weak until it gets very close to a surface. When the surface it contacts is large, it can add up to a strong attraction. Van der Waals forces occur when unbalanced electrical charges around molecules attract each other. The charges are always fluctuating and can sometimes reverse direction, but the outcome is that they draw molecules together, such as molecules in a gecko’s foot and molecules on a smooth wall.

To release their feet (to break the intermolecular force) they curl their toes. When a toe is at an angle of 30 degrees the binding breaks.