Squeaky gecko: interesting facts and photos

A squeaky gecko is a tiny lizard: in adults, the length of the body with the tail is no more than 9 cm, while on the trunk of them there is about 4 cm.

Description

The base of the tail, neck and trunk of the animal are covered with grainy scales on top. Among her larger, slightly bulging, rounded, slightly ribbed or smooth flakes stand out. They do not form regular transverse rows. Between the individual tubercles the distance exceeds the diameter of the tubercle. Very shallow neck scales. Gekkonchiki, whose photos are presented in this article, have plates at the bottom of their fingers, on a free edge without denticles or ribs.

Color

Gekkonchik squeaky over the sandy-ohristogo shade. From the supra-limb first shield through the eye from each side of the muzzle stretches a strip of dark brown color. Such strips can merge with each other on the back of the head, thereby forming a figure of a horseshoe shape. Between the eye and the nasal aperture, the bands are edged from above with a line of light shade, while in the gap between the upper side of the muzzle and the space between the orbits there is a dark brown vague pattern. From the waist to the nape across the body there are 4-7 dark brown bands.

Age variability and sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism in the squeaky gecko appears in larger sizes of females than in males. In females, anal pores are less developed and can almost completely disappear with age. Some body proportions are also subject to age-related variability. Young specimens of this species are shorter-tailed. In young animals, the diameter of the eye is greater than the length of the body. The values of these indices in sexually mature individuals become more homogeneous.

Squeaky gecko is common in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Outside our country - in southern Mongolia, northern Afghanistan, Northeast Iran and further to North China.

Habitat

Squeaky geckochik (photo of this lizard can be carefully considered in the article) is a typical inhabitant of semi-deserts, penetrating in places deep in the steppe, where it still adheres to semi-desert areas. Basically, it occurs along the slopes of small elevations that are covered with fine and coarse clastic material, sometimes on clayey-clay plains.

Known cases of penetration of the animal to the outskirts of the sands. Scant vegetation is characteristic of all its stations, which consists of tasbiurgun, boyalich, wormwood, teresken, low-grown cereals and saltwort. It settles under the slabs of limestone on precipices, on practically naked rubble-clay plains, and also on the outskirts of the saxaul thickets.

Behavior

Geckonchikam shelters are burrows of burrowing animals, cracks and cracks in the soil, the space under the stones, hollows and hollows in the basal part of saxaul. With the onset of darkness, the animal leaves shelter, but in cloudy weather it can be found in the afternoon. Can issue a metallic lingering squeak, which during the day is easy to confuse with the voice of the bird. Leaves for wintering in October. Spends the night in search of food near his shelter.

An interesting feature of these lizards is their very loud "singing", as well as a huge variety of different sounds that always accompany their life activity: croaking, tweets, clicks, squeaks.

The squeaky geckochik (interesting facts about his life are given in this article) moves during the period of activity by short dashes, bending and lifting the trunk high. It can easily move along vertical surfaces, but they, however, avoid them. Does not go far from their shelters. They hunt at the entrance of holes and cracks behind insects, and run after stones under the rocks. In animals, summer shelters are spaces under the slabs and stones, cavities of saxaul, cracks in the soil, crevices of stone artificial structures, burrows of vertebrates. Hibernate in cracks, burrows.

Activity

Squeaky gecko, whose photo shows it in all its glory, is active at a temperature of up to 25 ° C. During the day they hide in safe shelters. Reported in cloudy weather on the surface.

Squeaky geckochik mainly feeds on insects, among them butterflies, caterpillars, small beetles, orthopterans, bedbugs, dipterans, leafhoppers, spiders, ants, phalanges and scorpions. In the stomachs of animals the frequency of occurrence of beetles, spiders, caterpillars and butterflies, bugs and ants prevail.

Reproduction

Gekkonchiki reach puberty with a total length of the trunk up to 28 millimeters. According to the collection materials, the sex ratio is approximated by 1/1. Mating takes place at the end of April. At the end of May, the laying of eggs begins and lasts until the very end of June. The female lays several times one by one, sometimes two eggs, the average size of which is 6 X 9 mm. Since July, young individuals begin to appear. At the age of twenty months, there comes maturity, in other words, for the second spring after birth.

Rates of growth

Cubs that have just hatched from eggs have a body length of about 18 mm. By the end of the activity season, they (without the tail) reach a size of 24 mm, which means that individuals of the first generation can participate in active breeding for the next year. This species of the population is characterized by the presence of 4 age groups, the eldest among them includes representatives of three years and older.

The reasons for the decline in numbers

The squeaky gecko has several enemies. Among them can be identified forty. Also, the shrinking of the Aral Sea is the reason for the decline in the number of lizards , resulting in the retreat of the shore line from the rocks for several kilometers. This, in turn, caused a sharp reduction in the number of invertebrates. In addition, it should be noted that gecko from their biotopes are displaced when plowing lands.

Similar species

The squeaky gecko from the armor is distinguished by the fact that on its surface the bumps do not form longitudinal rows, and the presence of tubercles from the smooth.

Protection and practical importance

The animal is a very useful species. As a rule, it occupies plots that are not used by humans. But there are exceptions: for example, in the city of Big Bogdo, animal habitats are destroyed through the development of a bedrock, which is used to obtain gravel.

It should be noted that in this area, a squeaky gecko is in need of protective measures. The Red Book has already included it in its list. This need is due to a decrease in its abundance here, as well as the uniqueness of this species for the herpetofauna of our country.