Moorish Gecko

Fascinating facts about the Moorish Gecko

• Each breeding season the Moorish Gecko lays exactly two almost-spherical eggs, and it repeats this twice a year, once around April and again in June. After a four-month incubation the hatchlings emerge at less than 5 cm (2 inches) long, tiny enough to hide in the tiniest crevices. This predictable clutch size and timing mean that a single female can produce up to four offspring every year.
• A single adult can stretch to 15 cm (6 inches) from snout to tail tip, and its back is covered in enlarged conical tubercles that make it look like a tiny armored crocodile.
• While most people picture geckos clinging to low walls, the common wall gecko can thrive at elevations as high as 2,300 metres (7,500 ft). That altitude record places it well into mountainous terrain.
• In captivity the Moorish Gecko needs four to five years to reach full adult size. This prolonged juvenile phase means individuals spend several years feeding on insects and avoiding predators before they can reproduce.
• Human movement has carried this gecko far beyond its native Mediterranean home, it now lives on Madeira, the Balearic Islands, and even in parts of South America and California. Once established, it can prey on native frogs and smaller lizards.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

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