Thought to be extinct
Nobody saw one for decades, and it was believed extinct until it was found again in 1994.
Lizards · Time every day
Crested gecko
Lizard · from New Caledonia, in the Pacific
An orange-brown gecko with a fringe of soft spikes running from above each eye down its back, like eyelashes.
- Size
- About 20cm long
- Lives for
- 15 to 20 years
- Suits
- Beginners with room for a tall tank
Climbs after you on sticky toes. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the crested gecko
The eyelash gecko
The crests over its eyes look like eyelashes, and give it its other name.
It licks its eyes
It has no eyelids, so it cleans its eyes with its tongue.
Sticky feet and tail
Millions of tiny hairs on its toes, and a pad on the tip of its tail, let it walk up glass.
No second tail
It can drop its tail to escape, but unlike other geckos it never grows a new one.
It leaps
It jumps from branch to branch, and sometimes on to its owner.
The real thing
Photos of the crested gecko
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
It needs a tall tank with branches and plants, misted with water every evening, at ordinary room temperature. It eats a ready-made fruit and insect powder mixed with water.
Before you get one
A crested gecko needs no hot lamp and no live food if you prefer, which makes it one of the simplest reptiles to keep.
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