Hello all, so my father-in-law found this little one in his Brooklyn apartment. He took it to a pet store and they refused to take it, they told him it’s an anole. Personally I think it’s more of a type of gecko, it’s now in my possession and thinking of keeping it. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
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It looks like you’ve got yourself a Mediterranean house gecko. Cute little fella! I didn’t know they ranged that far north, I can’t imagine it would fair well through winter. I haven’t personally kept any so can’t give input for setup but keep plenty of bugs on hand.
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It’s a House Gecko 
I’d reccomend against this… WC animals usually do not fare well in captivity unless they are well established and with someone who has extensive experience in taking care of that species. This is likely why the pet store refused to take it in and good on them for doing so, among other reasons… like disease.
The best thing you can do is let this little one go, they love staying near house lights since they attract a multitude of bugs for them to eat.
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I will take this a step further. It is against the law in some states, if not most, to keep a wild animal. I second the fact that this little fellow will more than likely perish in captivity. The ideal scenario would be to release it where it came from. However since you don’t know exactly where, you will have to do the second best thing and just release it. Wild animals can and do survive even in the most unfavorable environments. They are resourceful in many ways…..
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I cannot believe these comments. Please don’t release a non native, non-naturalized reptile into the wild. Please. Please.
This species isn’t known in the wild north of Virginia (source: Meshaka et al ‘Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the US’), and even if they’re established releasing invasive animals is problematic. It is an escaped pet. It is not a wild animal.
Snaketammer, one option might be to check with neighbors in the apartment building to see if anyone lost it, but keeping a lost captive animal that no one is searching for is also fine in my opinion.
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I’m sorry but I highy doubt it is… My bad about the releasing part. I’ve seen these guys every day in the wild for basically my entire life so I was unaware they were invasive.
My thoughts as to why it’d be so far up north is that it was brought through vehicular travel, it happens all the time. I genuinely don’t think this guy was a pet.
If it was taken from a wild environment, it likely will not survive captivity, reguardless if it is invasive. I do take back my urgency to release it though, @snaketammer28 the best advice I can offer now is keep it in a small container, if you can get a critter carrier enclosure that’d probably work. Get it on paper towels, add some sticks and leaf litter.
There is no guarantee it will eat, no guarantee it will survive. Just make sure it doesn’t get cold and that it has a small thing of fresh water. It may be able to eat small crickets or fruit flies.
You might be able to contact your local fish and wildlife for help but they may just reccomend euthanasia since it is invasive…
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These are sold as wild collected all the time, as feeders and as cheap (~$10-15) pets. They’re also sold as CB, though less commonly. My local herp shop has WC on their list for pet quality examples, though they’re out of stock right now. UGR has WC listed, out of stock right now. MM has some sold ads for WC and CB, and Palmstreet has some current ads. There’s a list of ‘pet house gecko escaped’ threads on Reddit.
To think that the most likely scenario is that it hitched a ride in a car for a few hundred miles, got out in Brooklyn and went into an apt building is…implausible. These are common captives, and good at escaping.
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There’s also another ‘found this gecko’ thread from Brooklyn on reddit. Someone mentioned that a school in one area may have been the source of a small colony that only really persists in the closely packed city block there.
That or it hitched a ride in a package from somewhere else in the US. It happens.
They do not do well in the cold in NY and would most likely die if it was released outside of that apartment block it was living in. They’re fairly hardy and adjust well in most cases, so I’d probably keep it.
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Ouch! I have learned to do more research on any seemingly “wild” animal before posting “to release or not to release” to any op who comes here with that question! My apologies to @snaketammer28 and my apologies to that simply adorable little critter! 
Thank you @socraticmonologue John for some constructive criticism! To be honest, if it was me, I probably would’ve ignored my own advice and kept the darn thing anyway! 
Edit to add: legal or illegal! 
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I was totally in the wrong here!
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That’s really interesting. Would be fun to know if the current gecko is part of that jailbreak.
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Thank you all for all your input, after doing more research and checking local laws it seems like i can keep it. Being that it will not survive in the cold and is drinking and eating for me I’ve decided to keep it for now
. I set him up in a small quarantine critter box for the time being. The wife and kids already named it Brooklyn 
lol.
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Well here’s sending my very best to Brooklyn! You will get lots of advice on raising/keeping this little treat!
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Thank you! Really appreciate you and the MM community.
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