Nature Notes - Marbled Velvet Gecko

Features

The Marbled Velvet Gecko (Oedura marmorata) is a large gecko with tiny scales that give its skin a velvet type texture. They are rich purplish brown in colour with a plump tail.

Adaptations

Marbled Velvet Geckos have large eyes for night time stalking.

Habitat

Marbled Velvet Geckos are confined to spinifex and shrub covered stoney hills in central Australia.

Range

They live in eastern, central and northern Australia (excluding far north Queensland) and are the most widely distributed member of it's genus.

Diet

The Marbled Velvet Gecko emerges at night to forage around the open rock faces. They feed on a range of invertebrates including spiders and cockroaches and are also known to eat other smaller species of gecko. Their big eyes can detect the slightest movement from a long way off. When a gecko spots likely prey, it rushes to within a short distance of it and then slowly, one foot at a time, the hunter closes in. It lunges forward at lightning speed to grab its victim in its powerful jaws.

Predators

Owls and snakes prey on geckos.

Home

The Marbled Velvet Gecko lives in crevices among rocks, overhangs, under loose bark and in human dwellings.

Life Span

Geckos can live up to 10 years.

Size

They can grow up to 18cm total length.

Extra Fun Facts

Geckos have no eyelids. They use their tongue like a windscreen wiper to clean away dust.

Compare with the Western Banded Gecko of the Sonoran Desert.