Reptilia · Squamata
Eublepharis maculariusBlyth, 1854
Common Leopard Gecko
Photograph by George Chernilevsky, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 170 mm snout to vent.
Also called Spotted fat-tailed gecko.
Once published as Cyrtodactylus madarensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Eublepharidae › Eublepharis
- Grows to
- 170mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 29years
Longer than 93% of all eyelid geckos anyone has measured.
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 66.6 to 252 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
46 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
- 29years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 26.5°C
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 27.7°C
Carey and Judge 2000, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, Werner et al. 1993: 22 years, 4 months, Slavens and Slavens 1999: 28.5, Rogner 1997: 22; Bauer 2013: 29; Seufer et al. 2005 (a female caught as adult lived for 24 years and 2 months), 24.25 (Hallmann & Griebeler 2015)
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 170mm6.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 118.9mm4.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 118.9mm4.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 50.5mm2 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 50.5mm2 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 114.6g4 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 35.53g1.3 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 30g1.1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 3.16g0.11 oz
max 170 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 2500m
- Range size
- 1,631,450km²
Arthropods and lizards (e.g., Das and Das 2017, Kamali 2020), mainly insect (Singh et al. 2021)
Sit and Wait
Nocturnal and Crepuscular/ nocturnal (e.g., Rawat et al. 2019, Kamali 2020, Singh et al. 2021)
e.g., Rawat et al. 2019
max 2500 (Hallmann & Griebeler 2015)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Temperature
- Gestation or incubation
- 55days
- Average clutch
- 2.38eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–3eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.75–3eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–4per year
- First breeds at
- 13–18months
- Age at first breeding · female
- 400days
mean 1.75 (Hallmann & Griebeler 2015), 1-3 (Das and Das 2017)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- Eublepharis macularius afghanicus BÖRNER 1976 Eublepharis macularius fasciolatus GÜNTHER 1864 Eublepharis macularius macularius BLYTH 1854 Eublepharis macularius montanus BÖRNER 1976 Eublepharis macularius smithi BÖRNER 1981
- Described by
- Blyth
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Pakistan
Keeping one
2 ft 3 in × 2 ft 3 in × 16.5 in(68 × 68 × 43 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 6.75 in (170 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 80 °F (26.5 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. 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.
13kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 115 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Leopard 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.
Morphs
2 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 14 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →
Guo et al. (2021): "Lemon Frost geckos have increased white body coloration with brightened yellow and orange areas. This morph also displays a high incidence of iridophoroma, a tumor of white-colored cells. We obtained phenotype information and DNA samples from geckos in a large
Documented health finding. This morph also displays a high incidence of iridophoroma, a tumor of white-colored cells.
- Melanophoromas and iridophoromas in reptiles. — J Comp Pathol 2011
- Genetics of white color and iridophoroma in "Lemon Frost" leopard geckos. — PLoS Genet 2021
- Iridophoroma associated with the Lemon Frost colour morph of the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). — Sci Rep 2020
Ullgate-Agote and Tzika (2024) investigated skin colour pattern changes in leopard geckos: hatchlings present with a banded pattern which changes to spots in adults. As part of this reserach they investigated the Mack Super Snow color morph and identified "that this morph lacks x
- The dynamic behavior of chromatophores marks the transition from bands to spots in leopard geckos. — Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024
- Bell Albinobreeder consensus
A distinct albino strain, typically pinker with darker eyes than Tremper.
Worth knowing. One of three separate albino strains, not compatible with Tremper or Rainwater. Pairing across strains yields no albinos.
- Blizzardbreeder consensus
Patternless from hatching, ranging from near-white to grey or yellow.
- Bold Stripebreeder consensus
Pattern running head to tail rather than banded, selected for over generations.
- Carrot Tailbreeder consensus
Orange covering part of the tail. Usually quoted as the percentage of tail covered.
- Eclipsebreeder consensus
Solid black eyes, or partly so, and often white feet.
- Enigmabreeder consensus
Speckled, broken pattern with a white tail and variable spotting.
Documented health finding. Animals carrying this gene are widely documented to show neurological signs — circling, star-gazing, loss of balance, and difficulty targeting food — commonly called Enigma Syndrome. It is associated with the gene itself rather than with husbandry, and severity varies between animals.
- Giantbreeder consensus
Increased adult size. Two copies produce a larger animal again.
- Mack Snowbreeder consensus
Yellow pigment reduced, giving a white background. Two copies produce Super Snow: near-white with solid dark eyes.
- Marble Eyebreeder consensus
Marbled iris pattern rather than a plain one.
- Murphy Patternlessbreeder consensus
Hatches patterned and loses it with age, ending plain grey, green or yellow.
- Rainwater Albinobreeder consensus
The smallest-effect of the three albino strains, often lighter with pinker eyes.
Worth knowing. One of three separate albino strains, not compatible with Tremper or Bell. Pairing across strains yields no albinos.
- Tangerinebreeder consensus
Orange body colour, intensified over generations by choosing the most orange parents.
- Tremper Albinobreeder consensus
Reduced black pigment with brown and yellow tones and lighter eyes.
Worth knowing. This is one of three separate albino strains. It is not compatible with Bell or Rainwater albino: pairing two different strains produces normal-looking offspring carrying one copy of each, and no albinos.
- White & Yellowbreeder consensus
Lightened body with increased white between the spots.
Other inherited traits
Inherited characteristics and conditions recorded for this species. These are not morphs — nobody breeds for them.
- Amyloidosis1 reference
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 temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — 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
- — 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 Eublepharidae
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). Eublepharis macularius. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eublepharis-macularius
@misc{eublepharis_macularius_2026,
title = {Eublepharis macularius},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/eublepharis-macularius}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.