Some geckos can use their tail as a ‘fifth foot’ to cling to walls

By Jake Buehler

Geckos have an extraordinary capacity to cling to clean vertical surfaces due to particular gripping toe pads. Much less well-known is that some geckos have one other sticky pad beneath the tip of their tails – and a research reveals it’s comfortably robust sufficient to help the burden of the animal by itself.

Adhesive toe pads are the topic of a lot scientific curiosity, says Aaron Griffing at Marquette College in Wisconsin. However the tail pads are significantly much less understood, though …