CreatureData

Tree gecko

Hemidactylus platycephalus Peters, 1854

Status not recordedlizards

The tree gecko (Hemidactylus platycephalus) is a species in the family Gekkonidae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 3.34 g and reach 5.32 cm in length.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the tree gecko

Weight
3.34 gsrc for Weight
Length
5.32 cmsrc for Length
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
grassland, shrublandsrc for Habitat
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Reproduction
Eggssrc for Reproduction
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the tree gecko?

TREE GECKO · LENGTH 5.32 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 5.32 cm, the recorded maximum length of the tree gecko is about 3.1% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the tree gecko live?

Not recorded

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the tree gecko as introduced in 3 countries, and flagged as invasive in 1 of them.

  1. Comorosinvasive
  2. French Southern Territories
  3. Mayotte

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the tree gecko endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the tree gecko classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classReptilia
  4. orderSquamata
  5. familyGekkonidae
  6. genusHemidactylus
  7. SpeciesHemidactylus platycephalus Peters, 1854
Other names and names in other languages (2)
  • Baobab geckoEnglish
  • Flathead leaf-toed geckoEnglish

Catalogue of LifeWikidata

Relatives of the tree gecko

Other species in the same genus Hemidactylus.

Chichak

Hemidactylus frenatus

GekkonidaeNo free photo yet

Fox gecko

Hemidactylus garnotii

GekkonidaeNo free photo yet

CompareTree gecko vs ChichakTree gecko vs Turkish geckoTree gecko vs Fox geckoTree gecko vs Yellow-belly gecko

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the tree gecko?

An adult tree gecko weighs 3.34 g and measures 5.32 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the tree gecko an invasive species?

In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the tree gecko as invasive in 1 country: Comoros. It lists it as introduced in 3 in all.

What kind of animal is the tree gecko?

The tree gecko (Hemidactylus platycephalus) belongs to the family Gekkonidae in the order Squamata.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.

  • Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
    Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
  • Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
    Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
  • ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
    Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4
  • SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
    Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b
  • Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
    Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Tree gecko (Hemidactylus platycephalus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/tree-gecko

MLA

“Tree gecko (Hemidactylus platycephalus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/tree-gecko.

BibTeX
@misc{tree_gecko_2026,
  title = {Tree gecko (Hemidactylus platycephalus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/tree-gecko},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}