Reptilia · Squamata
Rhacodactylus leachianusCuvier, 1829
New Caledonia Giant Gecko
Photograph by Lennart Hudel, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
A tree-dwelling, nocturnal, omnivorous gecko from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 280 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Diplodactylidae › Rhacodactylus
- Grows to
- 280mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 38.2years
Longer than 99% of all species in Diplodactylidae 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 28.8 to 370 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
42 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
- 2017
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 38.2years
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 23.8°C
De Magalhaes & Costa 2009: 8.5, Honegger 1969, Werner et al. 1993: 30; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 8.5, Hammack et al. 2020: 38 and 2 months, still alive
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 280mm11 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 200.5mm8 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 200.5mm8 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 60.5mm2.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 60.5mm2.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 475.3g1 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 6.5g0.23 oz
max 280 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
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
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1100m
- Range size
- 12,859km²
- Home range · largest recorded
- 3646m2
(Pianka and Vitt 2003, Bauer 1985, Daza et al. 2009, Sadlier et al. 2014), birds insects and fruit (Bauer and Sadlier 2000, Bauer and Vindum 1990, Bauer 1990)
Banfi et al. 2023
Werner and Seifan 2006, Sound et al. 2018, Hudel et al. 2020, Bauer and Sadlier 2000 suggest it is partly diurnal - don't write it but probably mostly nocturnal
e.g., Sound et al. 2018, Hudel et al. 2020
5 (Sound et al. 2018)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Temperature
- Average clutch
- 2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 6per year
- Clutches a year
- 5–7per year
- First breeds at
- 24–48months
1-2 (Rosler 2005), 2 (Black 2005)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Gekkota
- Subspecies
- Rhacodactylus leachianus henkeli SEIPP & OBST 1994 Rhacodactylus leachianus leachianus (CUVIER 1829)
- Described by
- Cuvier
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1829
- Type locality
- New Caledonia
Keeping one
3 ft 8 in × 2 ft 4 in × 3 ft 8 in(112 × 70 × 112 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 11 in (280 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 New Caledonia Giant 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.
47kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 475 g, the heaviest recorded for New Caledonia Giant 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
0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 2 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
- Colour and bandingbreeder consensus
How green, grey or orange an animal is and how strongly banded. Worked on by selection within a locality, and it also shifts with the animal's mood and the time of day.
- Localitybreeder consensus
Adult size, ground colour and banding by island population. Grande Terre animals are the largest; the small island forms stay considerably smaller.
Worth knowing. A locality is a statement about where an animal's ancestors lived, not a gene it carries. It is only as reliable as the breeder's records, and a buyer cannot verify it by looking at the 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
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Diplodactylidae
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). Rhacodactylus leachianus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhacodactylus-leachianus
@misc{rhacodactylus_leachianus_2026,
title = {Rhacodactylus leachianus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/rhacodactylus-leachianus}
}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.