All Angles Creatures
Squamata · GekkonidaeEntry 15,217 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Phelsuma boraiGlaw, Köhler, Vences, 2009

Tsingy de Bemaraha Day Gecko

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

A tree-dwelling, day-active gecko from the Madagascan region, reaching 42 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataGekkonidaePhelsuma

Grows to
41.7mm
greatest recorded
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal
Weighs up to
1.7g
greatest
Body length across Gekkonidae

Longer than only 23% of all geckos anyone has measured.

23% of 1,580 species are smaller77% 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

26 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
Data Deficient
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2011

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
41.7mm1.75 in

max 41.7 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Body mass · greatestcomputed
1.7g0.06 oz

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

How it lives

Active
Diurnal

Mori et al. 2014

Where it lives
Arboreal
Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Madagascan
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Elevation · above sea level
349–658m
Range size
2917km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
2eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Gekkota
Subspecies
No
Described by
Glaw, Köhler, Vences
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2009
Type locality
Madagascar

Keeping one

6.5 in × 4 in × 6.5 in(17 × 10 × 17 cm)

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

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

Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.

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 1.75 in (41.7 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Tsingy de Bemaraha Day Gecko. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

0kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 2 g, the heaviest recorded for Tsingy de Bemaraha Day 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 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
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • 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
  • 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). Phelsuma borai. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phelsuma-borai

@misc{phelsuma_borai_2026,
  title  = {Phelsuma borai},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phelsuma-borai}
}

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.