Sponsor The Four Clawed Gecko

Finding Species created an educational, interactive website for the Geckos of the United States in collaboration with scientists, researchers, and originally with the support of USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). GeckoWeb has provided scientists and naturalists with a high-quality website to identify and study geckos and their threatened habitats in the United States. Finding Species located and documented species throughout the country, taking some of the most up-close, detailed images ever captured of these elusive species. The website was recently updated to be smart phone compatible and we would now like to add three more species. With your help, we can document these additional species.

Finding Species encourages you to sponsor a Gecko for $1,500. With your generous donation, you can honor a loved one and receive recognition on the GeckoWeb website along-side the gecko you sponsor. Your donation will provide Finding Species the resources to locate accessible geckos to photograph, cover costs of transportation, and photo-document the key characteristics of each gecko and its habitat. Finding Species always shares photos with scientists, institutions, and organizations for educational purposes. The fun part is you will be able to watch our progress as we keep everyone posted on social media and small clips of our work will be shared on our YouTube channel. You can help document species, one species at a time. Please join our efforts to Give a Face to Biodiversity.

Sponsor the Four-Clawed Gecko

Before Common House Geckos arrived on Hawaii, this species was common both around houses and in forests. House geckos have largely displaced Four-clawed Geckos around humans, especially near building lights.

Conservation & Other Threats
This gecko’s most distinguishing feature is the lack of a claw on the inner toes of its feet. Indopacific Tree Geckos and Mourning Geckos are smaller. The Indopacific Tree Gecko is very slender with a rudimentary innermost toe on the forefoot. The Mourning Gecko is distinguished from other geckos by a dark line between eyes, another extending from the tip of the snout through the eye and onto the neck. House Geckos have larger heads, and their toepads extend to the base of the toe. Tokay Geckos are much larger and distinctly colored, whereas the Day Geckos are diurnal, green in color and have round pupils.

Similar Species
Like many other geckos, Four-clawed geckos easily lose their tails, which later regrow. It is an agile climber, and hunts insects and other arthropods at night. It retreats to the leaf axils of palms and other crevices by day. Females lay pairs of round hard-shelled eggs that stick tightly to the substrate.

Habits
This species is known from all the larger Hawaiian Islands as well as Lanai and Kahoolawe. Like many Hawaiian geckos, its natural distribution is tropical Asia, from India to New Guinea. It arrived in Hawaii before Europeans, either by stowing away with early Polynesians, or perhaps by rafting across the Pacific Ocean. It has managed to reach most islands of the tropical Pacific, as well as Madagascar, Japan, and the west coast of Mexico. It has also been found in San Diego, California. This species thrives in a variety of habitats, including both forests and urban areas.

Habitat and Range
When grasped roughly, this lizard tries to escape with a very alarming escape mechanism: twisting violently, tearing loose large patches of skin, startling the captor and loosening his grip. The damaged areas quickly heal. Its most distinctive feature is the absence or near-absence of a claw on the inner digit of its fore and hind feet. It has a stout body and a row of enlarged scales running along the underside of the tail. They are gray to grayish brown by day, fading to whitish when active at night. The head and body are speckled with light and Four-clawed gecko’s flattened tail is constricted at the base, giving it a carrot-like shape. The finely granular skin is somewhat translucent. Adults are between 3.4 - 4.5 in. (8.5 - 11.5 cm) TL. Hatchlings are just under 2 in. (4 - 5 cm) TL.