Reptilia · Squamata
Oplurus cuvieriGray, 1831
Cuvier's Madagascar Swift
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Madagascan region, reaching 170 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Oplurus comorensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Opluridae › Oplurus
- Grows to
- 170mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 21.2years
What is known
41 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
- 2011
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 21.2years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 36.7°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 36.3°C97 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 36.2–36.4°C97–98 °F
Tacutu et al. 2013: 21.2
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 170mm6.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 129.1mm5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 129.1mm5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 45mm1.75 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 45mm1.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 223.3g7.9 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 117.7g4.2 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
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
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Mixed
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Madagascan
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1100m
- Range size
- 207,377km²
insects and occasionally fruit and leaves (Henkel and Schmidt 2000), and small mammals (Rosa and Rakotozafy 2013) and birds (Itoh and Ito 2015), and chameleons (Kawai 2016), "Insects, especially ants. Also eats fruits and flowers." (Mori et al. 2014), mainly ants, also rats and lizards (Gabriel et al. 2022)
Sit and Wait (e.g., Randriamahazo and Mori 2001, Mesquita et al. 2016, Rosa and Rakotozafy 2013, Butler 2005, but forages occasionally for plants and mammals, Rosa and Rakotozafy 2013) and birds (Itoh and Ito 2015)
e.g., Mori et al. 2014, Augros 2019
Arboreal but also Saxicolous and Terrestrial (Henkel and Schmidt 2000, Glaw and Vences 2007), arboreal (Mesquita et al. 2016) / arboreal and terrestrial (Mori et al. 2014)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–5eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.5eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
2-5 (Randriamahazo and Mori 2001, Augros 2019), mean 3.5 (Mesquita et al. 2016)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Oplurus cuvieri cuvieri (GRAY 1831) Oplurus cuvieri comorensis (ANGEL 1942)
- Described by
- Gray
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1831
- Type locality
- Madagascar
Keeping one
2 ft 3 in × 2 ft 3 in × 2 ft 3 in(68 × 68 × 68 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 6.75 in (170 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 98 °F (36.7 °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.
24kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 223 g, the heaviest recorded for Cuvier's Madagascar Swift — 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
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — 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
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Opluridae
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). Oplurus cuvieri. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/oplurus-cuvieri
@misc{oplurus_cuvieri_2026,
title = {Oplurus cuvieri},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/oplurus-cuvieri}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- 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.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.