Kākāpo Run
Kākā-POW! You’re a plump, flightless - but lovable - parrot. No stoat, rat, or car is stopping you in your infinite-runner race to Sanctuary Island. How long can you survive?
Electric Blue: Gecko dash!
Escape and evade!
The electric blue gecko is under threat from the pet trade! In our latest game you become a hero for this critically endangered species. Captured and alone, you must escape your cage and find your way back to the forest, avoiding hazards as you dodge, dash and dive for safety.
A lizard that dazzles like no other
High in the screw pines in Tanzania’s Kimboza forest lives a remarkable reptile, known as the Electric Blue Gecko. Although small, this dazzling creature has no trouble getting itself noticed. In bright sunshine dominant males flaunt the colour of turquoise gemstones, fuelling the lizard’s popularity among collectors, who buy it illegally through the pet trade. And that’s a problem, as are forest fires. When it's stressed, the Electric Blue Gecko's colour changes to black. Females are a different story! Learn more in our species spotlight.
Male Electric Blue Gecko
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Female electric blue gecko feet sticking to a leaf
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Male Electric Blue Gecko
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As if its extraordinary colouring wasn't enough, the Electric Blue Gecko has phenomenal sticking power. Each of its four feet has five bulbous 'fingers' with tiny, microscopic hairs called 'setae' on them. It's these hairs that allow the gecko to stick to smooth screw pine leaves. They can carry the little lizard up and over surfaces that humans - with the exception of superheroes - still only dream of scaling by themselves. The same hairs also grow under the tip of the Electric Blue Gecko's tail, likely for extra adhesion!
In-game hazards are real life threats
Logging
Screw pines are the only trees turquoise dwarf geckos live in, and they’re being destroyed by loggers.
Flaming Forests
Forests are burned as they are cleared for farming, destroying the screw pines geckos call home.
Poaching
Geckos are hand-caught by poachers and then sold illegally to collectors.
Mining
Mining for gold and precious stones are destroying the geckos’ homeland.
Invasive Plants
Non-native trees are out-growing electric blue geckos’ beloved screw pines
Snakes
Both Usambara vine snakes and green snakes prey on electric blue geckos.
Electric Blue Gecko conservation efforts
John Lyakurwa
John Lyakurwa is a herpetologist, one of a handful in Tanzania who studies reptiles and amphibians. In 2012 he first encountered the Electric Blue Gecko while camping in Kimboza forest. ‘The spectacular colours of males caught my attention,’ he says. But the more he learned about this unique reptile’s situation, the more he worried about it. Then, in 2019, he won a grant from the Zoological Society of London's EDGE Fellowship Programme and spent the next two years trying to help it.
A PLIGHT IT CANNOT FIGHT
Animals in the Pet Trade
As well as issues affecting their environments, desirable and rare animals live with the risk of being captured, bought and sold. Why do people buy these often-endangered species? What happens at customs? Are they happy in their new homes?
Meet our other heroes!
Save the Purple Frog
By hopping for your survival! You’re India’s weirdest frog. Dodge owls, snakes, trains and other life-threatening hazards as you make a hopeful dash for the breeding ground.