Hatchlings show bold black-and-white banding that breaks up into spots as they mature
A newly hatched leopard gecko looks dramatically different from an adult, with high-contrast juvenile banding across the body and tail. This pattern fades and fragments into the familiar spotted adult look over the first year, independent of morph.
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Most active at dawn and dusk when temperatures in their native Pakistan and Afghanistan are ideal.
A widespread misconception is that the tail acts like a camel's hump storing water.
Autotomy — voluntary tail shedding — is a defence mechanism.
Unlike most gecko species which use van der Waals forces to climb smooth surfaces, leopard geckos have conventional claws.
The moveable eyelid is unusual among geckos.
Hold your gecko up to a light source and look through one ear opening — you can see light through the other side.