{"id":28289,"date":"2025-05-22T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28289"},"modified":"2025-05-22T09:23:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T09:23:18","slug":"meet-dozens-of-gecko-species-at-a-tiny-brooklyn-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28289","title":{"rendered":"Meet Dozens of Gecko Species at a Tiny Brooklyn Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you head to the basement of an unassuming building in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and keep going straight past the Bone Museum, you\u2019ll find what might possibly be the world\u2019s smallest gecko zoo.<\/p>\n

The Gecko Gallery NYC, which grew out of a private collection originally housed in the apartments of its founders, Richie Laleh and Joseph Migirov, opens the weekend of May 23. It features 60 to 70 different species of mostly geckos (with a handful of non-geckos) for a total of about 150 lizards in a roughly 400-square-foot space inside the McKibbin Lofts, a mixed-use apartment building around the corner from night clubs and pizza joints.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Richie Laleh, 29, left, and Joseph S. Migirov, 19, at the Gecko Gallery NYC. <\/span>Ann Hermes for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The men, who work full time on the zoo, claim it is the largest public display of rare and endangered geckos in New York City. Mr. Laleh, 29, has a degree in biology and Mr. Migirov, 19, is currently pursuing one, but both say they have been working \u201chands-on\u201d in the field for years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The New York natives said they have loved geckos since boyhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only work with geckos because we met a gecko,\u201d said Mr. Migirov. \u201cWithout finding a gecko in the beginning, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Gecko Gallery NYC there are New Caledonian giant geckos, psychedelic rock geckos, monkey-tailed skinks, giant leaf-tailed geckos, peacock day geckos, and even a tiny juvenile (although almost fully grown) carpet chameleon that can easily curl up on your fingertip \u2014 just to name a few.<\/p>\n

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If you head to the basement of an unassuming building in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and keep going straight past the Bone Museum, you\u2019ll find what might possibly be the world\u2019s smallest gecko zoo.The Gecko Gallery NYC, which grew out of a private collection originally housed in the apartments of its founders, Richie Laleh and Joseph Migirov, opens the weekend of May 23. It features 60 to 70 different species of mostly geckos (with a handful of non-geckos) for a total of about 150 lizards in a roughly 400-square-foot space inside the McKibbin Lofts, a mixed-use apartment building around the corner from night clubs and pizza joints.Richie Laleh, 29, left, and Joseph S. Migirov, 19, at the Gecko Gallery NYC. Ann Hermes for The New York TimesThe men, who work full time on the zoo, claim it is the largest public display of rare and endangered geckos in New York City. Mr. Laleh, 29, has a degree in biology and Mr. Migirov, 19, is currently pursuing one, but both say they have been working \u201chands-on\u201d in the field for years.The New York natives said they have loved geckos since boyhood.\u201cWe only work with geckos because we met a gecko,\u201d said Mr. Migirov. \u201cWithout finding a gecko in the beginning, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are.\u201dAt the Gecko Gallery NYC there are New Caledonian giant geckos, psychedelic rock geckos, monkey-tailed skinks, giant leaf-tailed geckos, peacock day geckos, and even a tiny juvenile (although almost fully grown) carpet chameleon that can easily curl up on your fingertip \u2014 just to name a few.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28291,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28289"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28292,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28289\/revisions\/28292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}