22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Meet Dozens of Gecko Species at a Tiny Brooklyn Zoo
If you head to the basement of an unassuming building in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and keep going straight past the Bone Museum, you'll find what might possibly be the world's 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.
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 'hands-on' in the field for years.
The New York natives said they have loved geckos since boyhood.
'We only work with geckos because we met a gecko,' said Mr. Migirov. 'Without finding a gecko in the beginning, we wouldn't be where we are.'
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 — just to name a few.
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