Unlike chameleons, which change color to communicate and convey emotions, some geckos like Tailed Gecko, alter their appearance to make them hard to spot - partly as a means of defense, but also to allow them to catch prey. Chameleons want to be conspicuous; geckos want to hide.
The slow change in the body color occurs when cells bearing differently colored pigments beneath the lizard's transparent skin either expand or shrink. Not all the 2,000 species of gecko, found in warm climates around the world, can change color.
But they do possess the species other qualities, such as self-cleaning toe pads that enable them to climb vertically or walk upside down. The only surface to which a gecko cannot stick is Teflon.
