If you received an ominously quiet phone call from the Marine Mammal Center on Wednesday, you weren’t alone. 
 
 A gecko managed to climb atop a touch screen landline at the Center’s hospital in Hawaii and set off a flurry on non-stop phone calls in an incident that left wildlife staff puzzled — and also a little impressed at the dexterity of the lanky, mysterious reptile. 
 
 Dr. Claire Simeone, the hospital director of the Ke Kai Ola Hawaiian Monk Sea Hospital in Kailua-Kona, detailed the dramatic moments leading up to the discovery of the mass calls in a series of tweets Thursday night. 
 
 While she was getting lunch, Simeone said she started receiving calls at the hospital. Thinking someone may have had a “seal-related question,” she picked up, but was met with silence. 
 
 After receiving nine calls over a 15-minute period, Simeone started to panic and rushed back to the hospital. She thought there might be an emergency. 
 
 But when she arrived at the hospital, everything was calm. Then, her phone rang again. The call was coming from the hospital — but no one could figure out how. Simeone called Hawaiian Telcom, the state’s telecommunications provider, for insight. 
 
 A representative suggested that the incessant calls may be explained by a software issue. After taking a closer look, he confirmed the calls were coming from a single landline somewhere inside the hospital. 
 
 Simeone walked through the hospital, through the “fish kitchen,” into offices, and checked out the “viewing room” landlines until she received another call from the hospital on her cell phone. Again, only silence on the other end. 
 
 “I enter the laboratory,” she tweeted. There, she found the culprit: a green gecko stretching its body across the screen — and it was on an active call. Its tail lingered just millimeters away from a touch screen button suggesting to hold, end, or transfer the call. 
 
 It turns out the gecko had placed calls to everyone on the hospital’s recent call list, looming silently on the other end of the line each time. 
 
 “I had to send out a note to all of our staff and volunteers, who may have received telemarketing calls,” she tweeted. “I immediately hired gecko.” 
 
 The hospital is part of the Marine Mammal Center network headquartered in Sausalito. 
 
 You are not going to BELIEVE this story. It’s one of the best things I’ve experienced this year. Hold on tight for this roller coaster. pic.twitter.com/R0SfmgS0bn — Dr. Claire Simeone (@Claire_Simeone) October 5, 2018 
 
 Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor 

 THERE IS A GECKO SITTING ON THE TOUCHSCREEN OF THE PHONE, MAKING CALLS WITH HIS TINY GECKO FEET!!! This gecko has called me 15 times, and everyone in our recent call list. *Actual photo of telemarketer* @ TMMC @ GEICO @ HawaiianTelpic.twitter.com/USyKeOiDbE 

 I had to apologize to @ HawaiianTel man, who said “well, I haven’t heard that one before.” I had to send out a note to all of our staff and volunteers, who may have received telemarketing calls. I immediately hired gecko.pic.twitter.com/4xOYeg7pZ0
– The calls were coming from a landline inside the Marine Mammal Center in Hawaii, so incessantly that hospital director Claire Simeone rushed to the facility in a panic to figure out what was going on. Simeone had received nine calls in 15 minutes, but each time she answered, she was met with an eerie silence, recounts the San Francisco Chronicle. A prank? Was someone in trouble? Nope, Simeone explains via tweet that she entered the hospital's laboratory and uncovered the mystery: "THERE IS A GECKO SITTING ON THE TOUCHSCREEN OF THE PHONE, MAKING CALLS WITH HIS TINY GECKO FEET!!!" As it turns out, the gecko (pictured in the above tweet) had been busy. While stretched out on the phone, it inadvertently placed calls to everyone on the facility's recent-call list, some of them over and over. “I had to send out a note to all of our staff and volunteers, who may have received telemarketing calls,” she tweeted. “I immediately hired gecko.” (It's not the only place a gecko has turned up uninvited.)