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

HONOLULU — 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 nonstop. 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!”