If you head to the basement of an unassuming building in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and keep going straight past the Bone Museum, you’ll find what might possibly be the world’s smallest gecko zoo.
The Gecko Gallery NYC, which grew out of a private collection originally housed in the apartments of its founders, Richie Laleh and Joseph Migirov, opens the weekend of May 23. It features 60 to 70 different species of mostly geckos (with a handful of non-geckos) for a total of about 150 lizards in a roughly 400-square-foot space inside the McKibbin Lofts, a mixed-use apartment building around the corner from night clubs and pizza joints.
The men, who work full time on the zoo, claim it is the largest public display of rare and endangered geckos in New York City. Mr. Laleh, 29, has a degree in biology and Mr. Migirov, 19, is currently pursuing one, but both say they have been working “hands-on” in the field for years.
The New York natives said they have loved geckos since boyhood.
“We only work with geckos because we met a gecko,” said Mr. Migirov. “Without finding a gecko in the beginning, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
At the Gecko Gallery NYC there are New Caledonian giant geckos, psychedelic rock geckos, monkey-tailed skinks, giant leaf-tailed geckos, peacock day geckos, and even a tiny juvenile (although almost fully grown) carpet chameleon that can easily curl up on your fingertip — just to name a few.
The goal, Mr. Laleh said, is to get people thinking about animal conservation beyond tigers, rhinos and whales.
“While all those species are so important to conserve and are very important for the general public to know that their populations are declining,” Mr. Laleh said, “there are thousands of small species out there. They’re often very overlooked.”
When it comes to caring for geckos, Aaron Bauer, a biology professor at Villanova University and one the world’s leading experts on geckos, said that they could thrive in enclosures like the ones at the Gecko Zoo.
“On the whole,” Dr. Bauer said, it is possible to “see to the needs of most gecko species in a relatively small space.”
But, he cautioned, it’s a lot of work. Different species require different environments, diets (from bugs to nectar and fruit) and even the amount of light they are exposed to. Geckos can also become stressed by outside influences.
“Like most other reptiles, in the end, they’re going to be stressed by loud noises, unfamiliar sights, unfamiliar sounds, unfamiliar smells,” Dr. Bauer said, noting that he would expect lizards in that situation to spend most of their time hiding “and not be actually visible to people.”
Found on almost every continent, geckos are among the most diverse, species-rich group of lizards on the plant.
“They’ve evolved to live and adapt to many different conditions, from deserts to rainforests and everything in between,” Mr. Migirov said. “We work to show not only how important they are all over the world in all sorts of environments, but essentially how widespread they are as well, how variable they can be.”
The Gecko Gallery has been about a year in the making.
The two men joined forces with the Bone Museum early in the process. (They’ll be offering a discount ticket for people who want to visit both attractions.) There are no venomous geckos, so there were no special permits needed, and they emphasized that all of their animals were legally obtained with the paperwork to back it up.
Mr. Migirov and Mr. Laleh said they had worked meticulously to ensure that all of their lizards have the space and habitat needed to thrive. For the terrariums, they gathered and assembled materials that could replicate tropical forests, bamboo groves and sheer rock cliffs.
For some lizards, such as the Chinese crocodile lizards, they have built entire ecosystems. Their terrariums have fish, shrimp and running water.
Craig Pelke, the director of ectotherms at the San Antonio Zoo, said that as long as they are ethically acquired and allowed to thrive, geckos and other animals benefit from people being able to learn about them in a “nonconsumptive way.”
“When people have a better understanding, that leads to better appreciation, possibly some respect,” he said. “Next thing you know, they have a chance to maybe do something positive for a gecko around the world and they’re more likely to do it because they’ve had a chance to experience it up close.”
The idea that someone could be inspired, after meeting the geckos up close, to help the animals thrive is a driving force, Mr. Migirov and Mr. Laleh said. Both men said their early childhood introductions to geckos put them on the path to open this zoo years later.
“If I’m able to put a lizard in someone’s hands and they leave happy, I’m happy,” Mr. Laleh said.
“By being able to display these animals in a responsible and proper way,” Mr. Migirov said, he hopes that “we can just provide the opportunity that we had and have people fall in love just like we did.”
Aimee Ortiz covers breaking news and other topics.
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