National Geographic Museum Blog

Today, the voting closes to name the NGM gecko. In order to vote, please go to http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/.

Pick your favorite name for the new National Geographic Museum gecko!

• 
  Gripper, for its superior gripping abilities
• 
  Blinky, because geckos can’t
• 
  Gilbert H. Gecko, in honor of Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the Society’s first full-time employee
• 
  Natty G
• 
  Paddy, in honor of the famous toepads

Perhaps. It is not yet ready to be stitched into a suit for humans, but scientists have  created a new fabric that mimics the skin of gecko. When tested on a robot, it was able to scale smooth surfaces.

Check out this article for information: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7963830/Scaling-buildings-like-Spiderman-could-be-a-reality-scientists-claim.html

Engineers now want to “scale up” the design for humans as part of a project that has been codenamed Z-Man.

Geckos’ ability to defy gravity is due to microscopic hairs on their toes, increasing the surface area, which creates a “one-way adhesive”. A sticky bond is created with each step but that bond can be broken by movement in the other direction.

Technicians have struggled over the last 10 years to create an artificial version strong enough for a vertical climb to be attempted successfully. However, researchers at Stanford University, California, have created a rubber-like material covered with thousands of tiny polymer fibres to imitate the gecko’s hairs. These hairs, which are called setae, are ten times thinner than a human hair.

The material is said to be strong and reusable, and leaves no residue or damage. It has been tested on a “robotic gecko” called Stickybot which can walk up panes of glass.

For more read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7963830/Scaling-buildings-like-Spiderman-could-be-a-reality-scientists-claim.html

The National Geographic Museum will be having free Wednesdays for anyone interested in seeing the Gecko exhibit. This means that every Wednesday, you can visit both the Gecko exhibit and the Wild Music exhibit for FREE!

We hope you’ll stop by, bring your family, bring your friends and bring your camera. Did you know that this is a photography friendly exhibit? We hope you’ll take pictures and share them on our Flickr pages or share them here in the comments section.

It’s time for this week’s installment of Gecko Wars! This week we have the Chinese Cave Gecko vs the Texas Banded Gecko. Is it a don’t mess with Texas kind of week?

Chinese Cave Gecko:

• Eat insects and other small invertebrates
• The geckos tail is its reserve of fat, so the fatter the tail, the healthier your gecko is. Never grab your gecko by the tail. Like many lizards, their tails will break off as a defence mechanism if handled roughly.
• They will tolerate being handled for short periods of time, like when removing to clean the enclosure, but they generally won’t just sit and hang out.

Texas Banded Gecko

Stats:

• Texas Banded Deckos are small, terrestrial lizards, rarely exceeding 4 in (10 cm) in length. They have alternating bands of yellow and brown or pink colored banding down their body, generally with black accenting on the bands, and sometimes with varying degrees of black speckling.
• Primarily nocturnal and carnivorous, they will consume almost any kind of small arthropods. They are capable of vocalizing, and sometimes emit squeaking noises, most often when harassed or handled.
• When approached by a predator, Coleonyx brevis has a very interesting way of escape. When it realizes that it has become a target for a predator, C. brevis becomes very defensive. It stops and turns so that its head is away from and its tail is towards the approaching predator. It then remains motionless except for raising and lowering its tail at a 90 degree angle. At this point, the gecko will either flee when the predator is approximately 4 cm away, or it will distract the predator by detaching its tail. The predator attacks the autotomized tail while the gecko escapes.

In this match-up who do you think will win?

Source:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Coleonyx_brevis.html

http://www.albertabredgeckos.com/Chinese_Gecko_Caresheet_Page.htm

Wild Music: Songs and Sounds of Life is being shown in complement to Geckos: Tails to Toepads. Lucky you, with this special line-up of two natural history exhibitions for the price of one. Make sure to drop by either before or after you see Geckos!

From tiny insects to giant whales, nature is filled with creatures that create distinct musical masterpieces to communicate with and relate to one another. Wild Music: Sounds & Songs for Life invites visitors to engage in hands-on activities to explore how different animals form their sounds and inspire music around the globe.

Visitors will be encouraged to not only hear the music that surrounds them every day, but to see and feel it too. Among the exhibition’s highlights is the “Pictures of Sound” section in which visitors discover how sound patterns look by learning to read spectrograms that show the frequency of song changes over time. In the “Jamming Room,” a soundproof practice studio, visitors can play and compose songs using pre-recorded audio soundscapes, touch-activated Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) instruments and animal voices, acoustic percussion instruments and live vocals. In the “Underwater Microphone” section, visitors explore how sound is transmitted underwater as they experiment with a hydrophone in a water-filled tank and listen to mechanisms such as a bubbler, trolling motor and ratchet.

Admission to Wild Music is free. The exhibition is a production of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music, with major support from the National Science Foundation and additional support from Harman International Inc. and the NEC Foundation of America.

Headed to today’s Nats vs. Braves game? Have you had the opportunity to see a live gecko yet? If not, why not stop by the National Geographic Museum table near Section 106 for a chance to interact with our museum exhibit staff and learn a thing or two about  geckos? It’s a fun way to kill time before the game. Plus, we will have lots of great giveaways. Gecko temporary tattoos, anyone? Make sure to mention you’re a Facebook fan or blog reader.

Don’t forget– the game starts @ 1pm!

In this video, reptile expert Brady Barr gives a lesson in mating!

Our thanks to Geico for their support of the Gecko Exhibit and of “Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr” on National Geographic Channel.

First up in Gecko Wars, we pit the New Caledonian Crested Gecko against the Mossy Leaftale Gecko.

New Caledonian Crested Gecko
Stats:
- Previously thought extinct until independent researchers “found them” in the early 1990s
- Lifespan 10-15 years
- Eat 5-6 crickets a day or rotten fruit in the wild

- The Crested Gecko will not regrow its tail once lost The cells around the base of the tail are brittle, allowing the tail to break away when threatened or caught by a predator. The capillaries to the tail will close almost instantly so there is little to no blood loss. The tails will move independently of the body for 2–5 minutes. The loss of their tail is not problematic, and most adults in the wild do not have their tails.

- The best way to keep this type of Gecko when in captivity, is with 3 females for every male. Guess that makes him a busy Gecko.

Mossy Leaf tail Geckos

Stats:

- Their eyes are large, lidless, and have yellow sclera with elliptical pupils, suited for the gecko’s nocturnal habits.

-The mossy leaf-tailed gecko ranges in size from 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) when measured from nose to base of the tail. They spend most of the daylight hours hanging vertically on tree trunks, head down, resting. During the night, they will venture from their daylight resting spots, and go off in search of prey

- They are insectivores meaning that they subsist on a diet of insects

- This species has a dermal flap (excess skin) which it can lay against a tree making it practically invisible. Additionally, the gecko can change its skin color to match its background.

In a match-up, who do you think would win?

Today we launch the first in a series of posts about gecko species in conjunction with the exhibition, Geckos: Tails to Toepads, which opens on Friday. Here’s how it works. Each week, we will have two types of geckos figuratively face-off. We’ll share facts about their habitats, their diet, and their size. We want your opinion on which gecko  you think bests the other. Think of it like a March Madness bracket as we move to crown the “Gecko King.”

In the meantime, if you have expert commentary or opinion (have you owned this type of gecko?) send us a note. We’d love to feature you on our experts column!