All Angles Creatures
Squamata · GekkonidaeEntry 13,460 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Nactus soniaeArnold & Bour, 2008

Réunion Nactus

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A nocturnal gecko from the Afrotropic region, reaching 45 mm snout to vent.

Also called Reunion Hook-toed Gecko.

ReptiliaSquamataGekkonidaeNactus

Grows to
45mm
greatest recorded
Active
Nocturnal
Weighs up to
2.1g
greatest
Red List
Extinct
Body length across Gekkonidae

Longer than only 28% of all geckos anyone has measured.

28% of 1,580 species are smaller72% 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

21 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
Extinct
Conservation status
Extinct
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2019

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
45mm1.75 in

max 45 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Body mass · greatestcomputed
2.1g0.07 oz

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

How it lives

Active
Nocturnal

all 12 species in the genus are nocturnal (Gamble et al. 2015)

Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Afrotropic
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Range size
2541km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Arnold & Bour
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2008
Type locality
Reunion

Keeping one

Réunion Nactus is assessed as Extinct on the IUCN Red List. No living animal is known. Anything below describes what was recorded of the species while it existed, and it is here because a reference that quietly drops a species it has lost is a worse record than one that keeps it.

No enclosure size, temperature or feeding figure is given for this species. What is recorded about the animal stays on this page above; advice on keeping one does not, because there is none to keep.

Feeding

0kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 2 g, the heaviest recorded for Réunion Nactus — 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 female mean
  • 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 female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Where it lives
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Average clutch
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • 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
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • Highest it lives · above sea level

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). Nactus soniae. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/nactus-soniae

@misc{nactus_soniae_2026,
  title  = {Nactus soniae},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/nactus-soniae}
}

Sources

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