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Squamata · EublepharidaeEntry 8,806 of 21,572
Tokashiki Gecko, Goniurosaurus kuroiwae

Reptilia · Squamata

Goniurosaurus kuroiwaeNamiye, 1912

Tokashiki Gecko

Photograph by Akira Takao, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Oriental region, reaching 100 mm snout to vent.

Also called Kuroiwa's eyelid gecko, Kuroiwa’s Leopard Gecko.

Once published as Eublepharis kuroiwae, Eublepharis orientalis — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataEublepharidaeGoniurosaurus

Grows to
100mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Nocturnal
Lives up to
9.4years
Body length across Eublepharidae

Longer than 52% of all eyelid geckos anyone has measured.

52% of 44 species are smaller48% larger
66.6 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest252 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 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

45 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
Vulnerable
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2016
Population trend
Decreasing
Red List criteria
B2ab(iii,v)

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
9.4years

Slavens and Slavens 1999: 9 and 5 months; Kurita and Toda 2013: 83 months (nature), Kalayci et al. 2015: 7 years

Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
16.6–21.7°C62–71 °F
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
25.95°C79 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
25.5–26.4°C78–80 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
100mm4 in

max 100 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
87.7mm3.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent
87.7mm3.5 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
34mm1.25 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
34mm1.25 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
20.37g0.72 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Invertebrates (e.g., Honda and Ota 2017)

How it hunts
Active foraging

Werner et al. 2006, Honda and Ota 2017

Active
Nocturnal

e.g., Honda and Ota 2017

Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

Terrestrial and Arboreal (e.g., Honda and Ota 2017)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
9–10months
Region
Oriental
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Lowest it lives · above sea level
244m
Highest it lives · above sea level
450m

IUCN (0 to 450)

Range size
1255km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Temperature
Average clutch
2eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
2eggs

Kurita and Toda 2013, Honda and Ota 2017

Mean clutch
2eggs
Clutches in a year
3per year
Clutches a year
3–4per year
First breeds at
12–20months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Namiye
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1912
Type locality
Japan

Keeping one

Tokashiki Gecko is assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

15.5 in × 15.5 in × 15.5 in(40 × 40 × 40 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.

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 in (100 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 62–71 °F (16.6–21.7 °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.

3kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 20 g, the heaviest recorded for Tokashiki 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 · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • 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
  • 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). Goniurosaurus kuroiwae. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/goniurosaurus-kuroiwae

@misc{goniurosaurus_kuroiwae_2026,
  title  = {Goniurosaurus kuroiwae},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/goniurosaurus-kuroiwae}
}

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.