An Ontario family’s unintentional scaly souvenir from Mexico is now residing at a Peterborough-area reptile sanctuary.
Jean Parker of Colborne, east of Cobourg, discovered a tiny three-inch gecko inside her suitcase after returning from vacation on a late-night flight. With the house quiet and everyone heading to bed, Parker went to her suitcase to grab a pillow and got a shock.
“A little lizard sort of scurried out,” Parker said. “For a moment, I honestly thought, ‘Am I seeing something?’ But no, there was definitely a tiny lizard running around my room.”
The gecko quickly disappeared under a bed, prompting a family effort to track the reptile down. Once captured, they kept the gecko warm and named it Carlito.
They began to search for help and reached out to Canada’s Dinosaur Park (formerly the Indian River Reptile Zoo), just east of Peterborough.
“This poor little guy had the whole Mexican desert earlier that day,” Parker said. “And now he’s in Canada, in a tiny town, and it’s freezing.”
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Parker drove 60 kilometres north the same night to the sanctuary, playing classical music along the trip to keep things calm for both driver and the cold-blooded passenger.
“Carlito and I got in the car, played a little music and, in under an hour, he was delivered,” she said.
Sanctuary manager Melinda-Lee Baker says while reptiles sometimes make their way to Canada by accident, a suitcase stowaway is rare.
“It’s fairly unusual,” Baker said. “We’ve gotten other calls where eggs were laid in plants that then ended up in hardware stores or nurseries up here. That’s how some lizards come to Canada.
“But when it comes to suitcases, you’re probably not going to see this happen again for a long time.”
Baker says Carlito appeared slightly dehydrated but otherwise in good health. Canada’s Dinosaur Park is the only accredited reptile zoo in the county. Housing more than 200 reptiles, it’s also the largest non-profit reptile facility
“We’re a non-profit rescue,” Baker said. “We take in animals from people’s homes, from border services, and other facilities that can’t take care of their animals.”
Carlito is being monitored by staff and will spend time in quarantine before potentially joining the sanctuary’s other reptiles.
“They’re going to make sure he’s A-OK before meeting the rest of the lizard friends,” Parker said. “I think they’re going to set him up with a cushy pad and we can go visit him. How cool is that?”
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Ontario family discovers stowaway gecko in suitcase after returning from Mexico
