Whilst birding Jebal Lawz I found a small
and well camoflagued gecko on a rock at the end of a wadi. It was a Baluch
Ground Gecko Bunopus tuberculatus, a small, ground-dwelling gecko with
rather short, straight toes, a long tail, and conspicuous tubercles on the back
and flanks. The body is generally tan coloured, giving good camouflage against
its sandy habitat, and the tail is barred. As this gecko was living in a
mountainous landscape with dark rocks its ground colour was dark to match its
surroundings. As in other geckos, the eyelids are fused together, forming a
transparent covering to the eye, however, unlike many other geckos, it lacks
expanded toe pads, and is therefore unable to climb vertical surfaces. As its
common name suggests, it lives on the ground, digging burrows in the sand and
also hiding under surface debris. It is likely to be active at night, feeding
on a variety of insects, spiders and other small invertebrates but little is
known about it lifestyle. They have been reported as abundant and widespread in
vegetated sandy plains and in coastal habitats and can also be found in rocky
deserts and near farms, but are not seen in homes. They are found in the Middle
East, Arabian Peninsula and southwest Asia, from Israel, Jordan and Syria,
south into Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman, north to Turkmenistan
and east to Pakistan.
