Leopard geckos background info and info about geckos in general

What is a Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis macularius)?


Let us start with defining what Leopard Gecko is.

A Leopard Gecko is a rather tiny or medium-sized lizard like from the family of Gekkonidae.

There are about more than 300 kinds of species of geckos that are dispersed all throughout the sunny and warm regions around the world.

Despite rumours to the contrary, a Geckos bite is not poisonous.

A lot of its species are arboreal, while others live in human dwellings. A lot of the Geckos are lacking movable eyelids and have characteristic pads on the undersides of their feet that enable them to hold on to a smoother surface and thus enabling them to run upside down on ceilings (like a regular lizard).

Those pads contain microscopic backward-projecting hairs that are covered with tiny pads that generate an adhesive force through van der Waals attractions.

The Geckos are unique among lizards in which they actually possess voices, and different species can make characteristic sounds.

They feed on tiny insects like crickets and mealworms. Practically all of them lay eggs. The largest known Gecko species is said to grow up to 14-inches (35.5-cm), Geckos of the South East Asia. The wall Gecko or the Tarentola mauritanica of the Mediterranean Region is regularly seen basking by day on walls and rocks; these type of Geckos hunts by nighttime.

There are two native species in the United States alone, the first one is the Leaf-Fingered Gecko or the Phyllodactylus tuberculatus. They are located mostly on the extreme of South California and Baja California; The other type is the Banded, or Ground Gecko scientifically known as Coleonyx variegates from the deserts of the South West of the United States and New Mexico. The latter though is a ground-dwelling Gecko and it lacks footpads.

While in Florida there are a lot of West Indian species as well as the widely distributed Turkish Gecko or the Hemidactylus turcicus (which originally came from Africa). Geckos are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Reptilia, order Squamata, family Gekkonidae.

Wow, a lot of unpronounceable words there. But I find it's always useful to learn a little of the background of a gecko as you will understand why they act and choose to live in the habtitat they do.