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Squamata · SphaerodactylidaeEntry 8,750 of 21,572
Yellow-headed Gecko, Gonatodes albogularis

Reptilia · Squamata

Gonatodes albogularisDuméril & Bibron, 1836

Yellow-headed Gecko

Photograph by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A day-active, meat-eating gecko from the Neotropic region, reaching 48 mm snout to vent.

Also called White-throated Clawed Gecko, White-throated Gecko.

Once published as Gonatodes fuscus — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Sphaerodactylidae › Gonatodes

Grows to
48mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
13years
Body length across Sphaerodactylidae

Longer than 82% of all species in Sphaerodactylidae anyone has measured.

82% of 230 species are smaller18% larger
17 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest150 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 17 to 150 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

44 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
2013
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
13years

Carey and Judge 2000, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009: 13; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 5 years, 7 months; Bauer 2013: 13

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
27.2°C81 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
27.2°C

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
48mm2 in

e.g., Fitch 1973, Leenders 2019

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
37.5mm1.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent
40.7mm1.5 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
18.25mm0.7 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
18.3mm0.7 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
2.72g0.1 oz

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

Body mass · a typical adult
1.87g0.07 oz

AnAge rates this record "acceptable"

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
0.16g0.01 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods (e.g., La Marca and Soriano 2004, Senaris et al. 2018, Leenders 2019)

How it hunts
Mixed

Sit and Wait (Cooper et al. 2013), "chasing after" prey "near their hiding place" (Leenders 2019)

Active
Diurnal

(e.g., Rand and Myers 1990, Schwartz and Henderson 1991, Molina et al. 2004, Werner and Seifan 2006, Kohler 2008, in Schargel 2008, Castro-Herrera et al. 2007, Dominguez-Lopez et al. 2016, Castro-Herrera et al. 2012, La Marca and Soriano 2004, Henderson 2010, Dominguez-Lopez et al. 2018, McCranie 2018)/ Crepuscular (Fitch 1973) / nocturnal (Beebe 1944b, Rogner 1997a) / diurnal, occasionally nocturnal (Senaris et al. 2018), "completely diutnal" (Leenders 2019)

Where it lives
Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial

Variable: Arboreal (e.g., Rand and Myers 1990, Schwartz and Henderson 1991, Molina et al. 2004, Taylor 1956, Kohler et al. 2006, Castro-Herrera et al. 2007) /Terrestrial - scansorial (Fitch 1973, Castro-Herrera et al. 2012), Terrestrial (Beebe 1944b)/Saxicolous and Arboreal (Evans 1947, McCranie 2018)/ variable (Rogner 1997a)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
1500m

max 1500 (Dominguez-Lopez et al. 2016), near sea level to 1000 (McCranie 2018, Leenders 2019), 0-50 (Senaris and Rojas-Runjaic 2020), 0-1500 (Cardona-Botero et al. 2013)

Range size
873,800km²
Density
17.5–132.5per hectare

Breeding

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

1 (Dominguez-Lopez et al. 2018, McCranie 2018, Leenders 2019)

Mean clutch
1eggs

Dominguez-Lopez et al. 2018, McCranie 2018, Leenders 2019

Clutches in a year
8per year
Clutches a year
3–13per year
First breeds at
5–11.5months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
Gonatodes albogularis albogularis (DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1836) Gonatodes albogularis bodinii RIVERO BLANCO 1964 Gonatodes albogularis fuscus (HALLOWELL 1855) Gonatodes albogularis notatus (REINHARDT & LÜTKEN 1862)
Described by
Duméril & Bibron
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1836
Type locality
Martinique and Cuba

Keeping one

7.5 in × 7.5 in × 7.5 in(19 × 19 × 19 cm)

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

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

Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.

Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.

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 2 in (48 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 81 °F (27.2 °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.

0kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 3 g, the heaviest recorded for Yellow-headed 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 · adult female, mean
  • — 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
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Active in
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Sphaerodactylidae

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). Gonatodes albogularis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gonatodes-albogularis

@misc{gonatodes_albogularis_2026,
  title  = {Gonatodes albogularis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/gonatodes-albogularis}
}

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.