Hi all,
Let me preface this by saying I am very, very new and inexperienced in the world of reptile observation, identification and ecology. It probably has to do with the fact that I am blind and focus on observing more vocal species. So please forgive me if I get any basics wrong.
That said, I recently realized that on a trip to the Dominican Republic in April, there had been geckos calling in and around where we were staying, so I went to investigate what species they could be (these were never seen). I know they are all introduced / invasive, but any animal making a sound interests me. Anyway, naturally I found the frankly mind-boggling diversity of Hemidactylus house geckos, as well as Lepidodactylus lugubris. My question, and I couldn’t find this out in a cursory Google search, is whether any of these can be IDed reliably by characteristics of their chirping calls. Given the location, I am particularly concerned with H. angulatus, H. frenatus, H. mabouia, H. turcicus, and L. lugubris. I am aware that the Hemidactylus are all rather similar, and a recording from the Macaulay Library of L. lugubris also sounds similar, I do not know whether it was misidentified or otherwise compared to Hemidactylus, visually or by call.
Now for my second question. I noticed when looking at gecko observations for the Dominican Republic, none of which have sounds, that several Hemidactylus as well as L. lugubris had been observed or at least identified. Some sources across the web give fewer species, either because some iNat IDs are wrong, or because these species pose an identification challenge, or likely a combination. So my question for anyone knowledgeable about these geckos is, how likely are most or all of these identified to species to be correct? Is anyone curating them?
And yes, I will look through my recordings and upload some geckos eventually.
Thanks in advance,
Daniel