House Gecko And Its Prey

 

Olivier, Flickr

There is this house gecko (or lizard if you may) on the wall some fifty centimetres above our idiot box. And some forty centimetres from the same idiot box is a mosquito sitting on the same wall. But because the gecko is diagonally positioned, the distance between them is little more than ten centimetres.

TLDR; a house lizard and a mosquito are few centimetres away.

Lizard slowly takes its left forelimb forward. And then it stops for a while. Right limb forward and stops again. Right forelimb, stop, left forelimb, stop, right, stop. Movements are so slow and meditative that even if you stared at them without batting your eyelids, you would surely be deceived to think it hasn’t moved a little. But it has now closed down on the mosquito by half a distance. They are both facing each other. Can a tiny mosquito sense the lizard closing in on itself?

It is now four centimetres away. So close to its prey, its food. So close that even I could feel the satisfaction it must be feeling inside. Its relentless pursuit and enduring efforts are about to pay it well. It takes another step. Pauses and stares at its prey. Inconsequential and indifferent stare, as if to say, ‘worry not you little thing; oh look! I’m so far away from you. Worry not.’ A cunning act but nonetheless necessary for its survival. It is only three centimetres away from its prey now. So little a distance. Final few movements and the black tiny mosquito will soon cease to exist outside its digestive tract. It now lifts its foreleg ever so lightly, now cautious more than ever before, it delicately tries to place it down but before it could do so, the mosquito rises up and flies away to the left of the wall. A half-meter away.

Usually, I’m happy when a prey escapes. Last moment escapes are glorious to watch. But this one did not satisfy me. I felt sad, so unsatisfactory. Do you know they all have special legs, mosquitoes and lizards who can endure upon an upward wall defying gravity?

Oh, wait, Oh damn, what did I see!

The lizard. It did not move slow or took no more measured and gentle steps in its second act, the final part. It straight away, from that long a distance, ran like a laser beam and in microseconds took out its tongue and took in its spoil.

What sorcery. What display of skill.