Seal hospital’s resident gecko makes a ‘billion’ prank-calls

A seal hospital’s resident gecko made a lot of people very angry last week when he got his tiny hands on a phone.

The phone company acknowledged a “bazillion” calls were made.

If you got incessant phone calls last week from a hospital that cares for Hawaiian monk seals, you were butt-dialled.

Or, more specifically, foot-dialled.

By a gecko.

Marine mammal veterinarian Claire Simeone was getting lunch when she got a call from the Big Island hospital where she’s director. There was silence on the other end. Nine more silent calls followed. Fearing a seal emergency, she rushed back.

She wasn’t the only one getting calls, and people started asking why the hospital was calling non-stop. Ms Simeone says on Twitter the phone company acknowledged a “bazillion” calls were made.

Ms Simeone walked into a lab at the hospital and found the culprit. The gecko was perched on a phone, making calls to everyone in the recent call history with “HIS TINY GECKO FEET!”

— AP