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Squamata · GekkonidaeEntry 4,509 of 21,572
Giant Ground Gecko, Chondrodactylus angulifer

Reptilia · Squamata

Chondrodactylus anguliferPeters, 1870

Giant Ground Gecko

Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Afrotropic region, reaching 113 mm snout to vent.

Also called Common Giant Ground Gecko, Namib Giant Ground Gecko.

Reptilia › Squamata › Gekkonidae › Chondrodactylus

Grows to
113mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Nocturnal
Lives up to
10.8years
Body length across Gekkonidae

Longer than 94% of all geckos anyone has measured.

94% of 1,580 species are smaller6% larger
23 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest220 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 23 to 220 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

42 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2019
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
10.8years

De Magalhaes & Costa 2009: 10.8; Werner et al. 1993, Hughes 1988: 7 years, 5 months, Slavens and Slavens 1999 (10 years, 10 months)

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
25.6°C78 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
25–26.2°C77–79 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
113mm4.5 in

Heinz et al. 2021 (max ≥ 113 mm), 44.6 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
86.1mm3.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent
86.1mm3.5 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
38mm1.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
38mm1.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
26.7g0.94 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass · a typical adult
13.21g0.47 oz

AnAge rates this record "acceptable"

Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
17.2g0.61 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods (mainly termites) and vertebrates (9%, Pianka 1986, small lizards, Alexander and Marais 2007, 11/304: Pianka and Huey 1978, see Bauer 1990 for species), insects and geckos (Branch 2016), arthropods and geckos (Haacke 1976)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

active foraging / Sit and Wait (Vitt and Price 1982, Huey et al. 2001, Mesquita et al. 2016)

Active
Nocturnal

nocturnal and Crepuscular (Rogner 1997a), nocturnal (Branch 2016, Haacke 1976), cathemeral (Rodda 2020)

Where it lives
Terrestrial

e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Branch 2016, Haacke 1976

Habitat
Desert, Shrubland
Biome
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Region
Afrotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
890–1450m
Range size
886,148km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1.7eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

1.7 Goldberg 2006, African Zoology, mean 2 (Mesquita et al. 2016, Haacke 1976), 1-2 (Schleicher 2015)

Mean clutch
1.7eggs
Clutches in a year
3per year
Clutches a year
2–4per year
First breeds at
12months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Peters
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1870
Type locality
South Africa

Keeping one

18 in × 18 in × 11 in(45 × 45 × 28 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 4.5 in (113 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 78 °F (25.6 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

4kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 27 g, the heaviest recorded for Giant Ground Gecko — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • — Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • — Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • — Largest male · snout to vent
  • — Largest female · shell length
  • — Largest male · shell length
  • — Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • — Largest juvenile · shell length
  • — Egg length
  • — Egg width
  • — Body mass at hatching
  • — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • — Age at first breeding · female
  • — Mature from · youngest recorded
  • — Mature by · oldest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • — Colour on the back
  • — Pattern on the back
  • — Pupil
  • — Sex decided by
  • — Red List criteria
  • — Active season · shortest recorded
  • — Active season · longest recorded
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Active in

Others in Gekkonidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Chondrodactylus angulifer. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chondrodactylus-angulifer

@misc{chondrodactylus_angulifer_2026,
  title  = {Chondrodactylus angulifer},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chondrodactylus-angulifer}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  4. AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.