Reptilia · Squamata
Paroedura pictaPeters, 1854
Panther Gecko
Photograph by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
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A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating gecko from the Madagascan region, reaching 111 mm snout to vent.
Also called Madagascar Ground Gecko, Panther Madagascar Ground Gecko.
Reptilia › Squamata › Gekkonidae › Paroedura
- Grows to
- 111mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 15years
Longer than 94% of all 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 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
39 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
- 15years
Werner et al. 1993: 5; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 6 months; "some make it past 15 years and more" (http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/gecko-care-sheets/57079-paroedura-picta-geckos.html)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 111mm4.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 75.6mm3 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 75.6mm3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 25.42g0.9 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 12.31g0.43 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.48g0.02 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Shai Meiri, unpublished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
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Madagascan
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Elevation · above sea level
- 70–240m
- Range size
- 136,497km²
insectivorous (Schonecker 2008), arthropods (Gardner and Jasper 2012)
e.g., Theisinger and Ratianarivo 2015
Leaf Litter and Terrestrial (e.g., Gardner and Jasper 2012, terrestrial, Theisinger and Ratianarivo 2015)
IUCN (70 to 240)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 1.89eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.78–2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 2–3per year
- First breeds at
- 4–9months
2, rarely 1 (Starostova et al. 2010, Kubicka et al. 2012), 535 eggs in 5 clutches by 60 females (Starostova et al. 2012)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- Madagascar
Keeping one
17.5 in × 17.5 in × 11 in(44 × 44 × 28 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 4.25 in (111 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Panther Gecko. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
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 25 g, the heaviest recorded for Panther 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
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 3 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →
- Albinismpeer reviewed
This phene includes references to studies involving gene edited or genetically modified organisms (GMO).
- A reverse genetic approach in geckos with the CRISPR/Cas9 system by oocyte microinjection. — Dev Biol 2023
- Albinobreeder consensus
No black pigment, leaving a pale tan and cream animal with red eyes.
- Stripedbreeder consensus
A pale line down the back in place of banding. Its width and completeness vary between siblings and are worked on by selection.
- Xanthicbreeder consensus
Yellow pigment heavily increased, giving a gold or orange animal.
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
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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 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). Paroedura picta. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/paroedura-picta
@misc{paroedura_picta_2026,
title = {Paroedura picta},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/paroedura-picta}
}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.