Leopard gecko
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Leopard gecko ( Eublepharis macularius ssp. ) |
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| Eublepharis macularius | ||||||||||||
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The leopard gecko or Pakistani fat- tailed gecko ( Eublepharis macularius ) is a species from the genus of leopard geckos within the subfamily of the Lidgeckos (Eublepharinae). They are inhabitants of the dry and semi-arid steppe landscapes and dry grasslands of Asia .
description
Leopard geckos are between 25 and 30 centimeters long. They live to be up to 20 years old. The head is quite long and triangular. It becomes about half as long as the trunk and has prominent eyelids. The tail, which is fleshy at the base and which appears to be segmented by its scales, reaches about a third of the length of the head and body. The body of wild-colored animals (often referred to as nominate ) is usually yellow to gray-violet in color and has many black-brown spots and often a light longitudinal stripe on the back. The scales are fine-grained, underneath are bumpy elevations. Often there is an X- or Y-shaped light mark on the muzzle. The tail often still shows the banding of the youth drawing. The ventral side is smoothly scaled and without any markings. Old animals are often uniformly brown on top. The toes have claws but no adhesive lamellae.
The males are more powerfully built with wider heads and pronounced pre-anal pores. Young animals are straw yellow with a dark brown head and neck, two dark brown transverse spots over the trunk and a black and white banded tail.
Many other, sometimes very colorful, color forms were bred in captivity.
Way of life
Leopard geckos are crepuscular and nocturnal and spend the day under stones or in caves. Leopard geckos usually live in loose associations of up to 5 animals, whereby it should be noted that there is only one male per group. However, whether leopard geckos are solitary or prefer to form social groups is hotly debated. If males meet, this can trigger territorial fights that lead to the death of one of the animals. The caves are dug themselves in places or taken over and expanded by other animals. They prefer places with a certain amount of humidity and often occur there in larger numbers. During the activity phase, they are described as very vital and, thanks to their claws (instead of sticky lamellae on the toes as with most geckos ), they are skilled climbers. Due to their cold-blooded heat balance, they use the stones that have been heated up during the day as heat sources at night. During the cooler season, the animals hibernate for a few months.
distribution
The range of the leopard gecko includes eastern Afghanistan , Pakistan and northern India . A site in southeastern Iran has not been confirmed for many decades. The animals inhabit dry to semi-arid steppe areas.
nutrition
Leopard geckos feed primarily on all kinds of small animals, such as beetles, spiders, worms, maggots, larvae and centipedes, but also scorpions and young small mammals such as mice. In captivity, mostly crickets, but also other insects and young small mammals are fed and, incorrectly, rarely plant-based food. The females stop feeding shortly before laying eggs.
Reproduction
Leopard geckos reach sexual maturity at 9 to 12 months. The mating season usually begins shortly after hibernation. The eggs are laid around three to four weeks after mating. The clutch usually consists of two eggs, but it can also be just one and is deposited in soft ground. There can be up to ten clutches in a year. The incubation time depends strongly on the temperature. Under controlled circumstances, the young hatch after 40 to 65 days. The incubation temperature also affects the sex of the pups. At below 26 ° C mostly only females hatch and at over 31.5 ° C mostly only males. In nature, they usually hatch after 90 to 100 days. The young animals are 80 to 85 millimeters in size and weigh 2–3 grams. They are brownish to ocher in color and have whitish banding. From the eighth month of life, the adult coloration sets in.
Leopard geckos as pets
The leopard gecko is one of the most common reptiles kept in terrariums. The majority of the animals should now come from offspring, mostly with ancestors from Pakistan.
There are numerous color varieties that are traded under names such as High Yellow (with an intense yellow color) or Albino (which lack the pigment melanin responsible for the black color) . In some color forms, incest and overbreeding have resulted in genetic defects. Because of damage to the central nervous system , animals of the Enigma color tend to spin (the animal sometimes turns in a circle for minutes) or show symptoms such as lying on their back and turning sideways around their own axis (crocodile roll) as soon as they are exposed to stress. Other symptoms of these genetic defects are loss of balance (the animal simply tips over), rocking the head back and forth, or staring at the ceiling for no apparent reason. Such animals also have excessively light-sensitive eyes, so that even in twilight they walk around with their eyelids almost closed.
literature
- Dirk Duscha, Oliver Drewes: The leopard gecko and its color variants. VIVARIA Verlag, Meckenheim 2015, ISBN 978-3-9813176-7-1 .
- Dirk Duscha: The leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). In: Reptilia. Vol. 11, No. 1 = No. 57, 2006, ISSN 1431-8997 , pp. 20-29.
- Karsten Grießhammer, Gunther Koehler: Leopard geckos. Care, breeding, diseases, color variations. Herpeton-Verlag Köhler, Offenbach 2006, ISBN 3-936180-17-2 .
- Muhammad Sharif Khan: Lifestyle and biology of the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) in Pakistan. In: Reptilia. Vol. 11, No. 1 = No. 57, 2006, pp. 30-35.
- T. Meschede: Considerable malformations in Eublepharis macularius (BLYTH 1854). In: Elaphe. Vol. 14, No. 3, 2006, ISSN 0943-2485 , pp. 35-36.
- Hermann Seufer, Yuri Kaverkin, Andreas Kirschner (eds.): The Lidgeckos. Care, breeding and way of life. Kirschner & Seufer, Karlsruhe 2005, ISBN 3-9804207-7-9 .
- Thomas Wilms: The leopard gecko - not just an entry-level animal. Keeping and propagation of Eublepharis macularius in the terrarium. In: Reptilia. Vol. 9, No. 2 = No. 46, 2004, pp. 56-62.
- Friedrich-Wilhelm Henkel, Michael Knöthig, Wolfgang Schmidt: Leopard geckos. Natur-und-Tier-Verlag, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-931587-38-X .
- H. Wilhelm: keeping and breeding: the leopard gecko Eublepharis macularius. In: Reptilia. Vol. 3, No. 4 = No. 12, 1998, pp. 30-32.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Grießhammer, Köhler: Leopard geckos. 2006, p. 67.
Web links
- Eublepharis macularius in The Reptile Database
- Eublepharis macularius on the Animal Diversity Web
- The leopard gecko at DahmsTierleben
- Eublepharis macularius subspecies fuscus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted By: Srinivasulu, C. & Srinivasulu, B., 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2014.