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Gecko butt-dials ‘bazillion’ times from Hawaii seal hospital

Posted at 4:08 PM, Oct 09, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-09 16:08:17-04

HONOLULU (AP) — If you got incessant phone calls last week from a hospital that cares for Hawaiian monk seals, you were butt-dialed.

Or, more specifically, foot-dialed.

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. Simeone says on Twitter the phone company acknowledged a “bazillion” calls were made.

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!”