Most lizards are close to silent. Geckos are a conspicuous exception, and the tokay is among the loudest: its call carries across a village at night and can be repeated a dozen or more times in a bout. The name in Malay, Thai, Javanese and other regional languages tracks the sound directly, and the scientific name Gekko gecko preserves the same echo.
The call is produced by the larynx and delivered from an elevated perch, typically by males, and appears to advertise occupancy and readiness to mate. Tokays are strongly territorial and will hold a wall or tree against rivals; the bite is genuinely painful and the animal is reluctant to let go.
The species is common and adaptable, but it has been heavily collected. In the 2000s an enormous trade developed on the false claim that tokay tissue could cure HIV or cancer, and the species was later listed on CITES Appendix II. There is no evidence for any such medicinal effect, and the harvest was driven purely by the rumour.