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Leaping Lizards! Live Gecko Found Inside a Man's Ear

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This gecko was not the culprit. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Talk about an earache: When a man in China went to the hospital because of severe ear pain, doctors found a live gecko curled up in his ear canal, according to news reports.

The man woke up in the morning complaining of severe pain in his ear, as well as the feeling of something squirming around in there, according to the Deccan Chronicle, a South Indian newspaper. When doctors peered inside, they spotted a live lizard.

But not all of the gecko was removed during the procedure: The Deccan Chronicle noted that the gecko appeared to be missing its tail, which the doctors could not find in the man's ear. It's possible that the lizard lost its tail before getting stuck in the man's ear canal. Some species of geckos can shed their tails as a means of self-defense, and a recently discovered species can even shed all of its scales to protect itself if a predator catches hold of it.

Geckos aren't the only unwanted visitors that have made their way into human ears; people have found spiders, fruit-fly larvae and flesh-eating worms residing in their ear canals.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Sara G. Miller
Sara G. Miller
Staff Writer
Sara is a staff writer for Live Science, covering health. She grew up outside of Philadelphia and studied biology at Hamilton College in upstate New York. When she's not writing, she can be found at the library, checking out a big stack of books.