“Tokay geckos are named after the loud, barking 'To-kay! To-kay!' sound that males make to attract mates and defend their territory.”
Tokay geckos are large, vocal lizards native to South and Southeast Asian forests and buildings, with introduced populations elsewhere. Adhesive toe pads support vertical climbing, while males advertise territories after dark with a loud two-part call.
By An Nguyen · Published · Updated
Measured against the 176 species profiled on this site. Each figure is converted to one unit system from the published range on the page, so the ranks are computed, not quoted.
| Measure | This species | Rank here | Exceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body mass | 283.5 g | #146 of 176#13 of 15 Reptilia | 17% |
| Body length | 38.1 cm | #142 of 176#14 of 15 Reptilia | 19% |
| Lifespan in the wild | 10 yr | #135 of 169#13 of 14 Reptilia | 20% |
Closest in body mass
Ranks use the upper end of each published adult range, so they compare typical large adults rather than records, and metrics with no published number are left out rather than estimated. The full table is downloadable from the species dataset, and any two species can be put side by side in the comparison tool.
Browse photographs of tokay gecko across habitat, behavior, anatomy, and life stages.
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Core article
A closer look at habitat, diet, behavior, reproduction, and conservation.
The tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) is a large nocturnal gecko of the humid forests of Southeast Asia, named for its repeated "To-kay! To-kay!" call. Its blue-grey skin is dotted with orange or red, and it uses strong jaws, adhesive toe pads, and loud territorial calls to hold trees, cliffs, and buildings. It hunts insects and small vertebrates after dark.
Adults reach 11 to 15 inches including the tail and weigh 5 to 10 ounces, larger than the little geckos usually seen on house walls, with soft granular skin in slate-grey or pale blue spotted rust-red to orange. The tokay climbs by dry adhesion, not suction: its wide toe pads carry millions of microscopic hair-like setae, each branching into finer spatulae, and close contact with a surface generates van der Waals forces strong enough to grip smooth glass. The large eyes have vertical slit pupils, retinas packed with sensitive cones (no rods) for low-light color vision measured at roughly 350 times a human's, and no movable eyelids — each eye is covered by a transparent scale the gecko cleans with its tongue. It belongs to the true-gecko family Gekkonidae, among the larger members of the genus Gekko.
The tokay gecko is native to warm, humid South and Southeast Asia — India, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines — and the pet trade and cargo transport have seeded introduced populations in places like Florida and Hawaii. In its native range it lives in tropical forest and secondary growth, sheltering by day in tree hollows and under loose bark, and it readily takes to farms and buildings, using roof spaces and wall crevices and hunting the cockroaches and crickets that gather there.
The tokay gecko is a nocturnal carnivore that shelters by day and emerges at dusk to hunt across tree trunks, rock, and walls. Its diet is mainly large invertebrates — cockroaches, crickets, spiders, scorpions, centipedes — with small rodents, frogs, snakes, and other geckos taken when available. A strong bite helps it hold relatively large prey and doubles as a defense, and a threatened gecko may keep its grip after biting.
Unlike the docile geckos often kept as pets, tokays are strongly territorial; males live alone and defend their patch from intruders, and disputes can cost injuries or a tail. The male's loud, two-part "To-kay! To-kay!" call — the source of the name — advertises territory and attracts females, and the gecko also hisses, croaks, and barks when threatened. Like many lizards it can drop its tail along fracture planes; the detached tail keeps moving to distract a predator while the gecko escapes, and a shorter, differently colored replacement grows back over months.
Breeding is in the wet season. A male calls in a female, and after mating she chooses a concealed site — a tree crevice or wall crack — and lays two adhesive eggs that harden once stuck to bark, rock, or wall; both parents may guard them. Incubation runs 90 to 120 days with temperature and humidity, and hatchlings emerge independent at 2 to 3 inches, taking small insects at once. Wild tokay geckos may live 7 to 10 years, up to 15 in captivity.
The tokay gecko is Least Concern with a stable overall trend, its broad range and use of modified habitats buffering local habitat loss. Collection is the real pressure: millions are taken from the wild each year for the pet trade and for East Asian traditional-medicine markets (on unsupported medicinal claims), and high or poorly regulated harvest has thinned some regional populations, prompting stricter trade monitoring.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Order
Squamata
Family
Gekkonidae
Genus
Gekko
Species
G. gecko
Tokay geckos are named after the loud, barking 'To-kay! To-kay!' sound that males make to attract mates and defend their territory.
Millions of microscopic structures called setae on their toe pads allow Tokay geckos to climb smooth glass and move upside down.
When grabbed by a predator, a Tokay gecko can detach its tail as a distraction and later grow a replacement.
Tokay geckos lack movable eyelids; a clear scale covers each eye, and the gecko cleans it with its tongue.
Tokay geckos have strong jaws and may hold on after biting.
Their night vision is 350 times more sensitive than human eyes, allowing them to see color even in pitch-black darkness.
Select a question to reveal the answer.
Their toe pads carry millions of microscopic structures that make close contact with a surface and generate temporary adhesion, allowing the geckos to climb walls and ceilings.
Male Tokay geckos make a loud 'To-kay!' sound to mark their territory and warn other geckos to stay away, as well as to attract females.
They are carnivores that eat insects, spiders, cockroaches, and occasionally small birds, rodents, or other lizards.
No, they do not have eyelids. They protect their eyes with a clear scale and lick their eyes with their tongue to clean off dust.
Yes. If a predator grabs the tail, it can detach and continue moving while the gecko escapes. A replacement tail grows over time.
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