The East Canary gecko or Canary wall gecko (''Tarentola angustimentalis'') is a species of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

in the family

Phyllodactylidae The Phyllodactylidae are a family of geckos (Gekkota) consisting of over 150 species in 10 genera, distributed throughout the New World, North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The family was first delineated based on a molecular phylogenetic ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the eastern

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are temperate

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, rocky areas, rocky shores, sandy shores, intertidal

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

es,

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

, pastureland,

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s, rural gardens, and urban areas.

Description

The East Canary gecko can grow to about from the tip of its snout to its vent and has a tail of a similar length. It is a sturdy, plump gecko with a dorsally flattened head and body and short sideways projecting legs and resembles the

Moorish gecko ''Tarentola mauritanica'', known as the common wall gecko, is a species of gecko (Gekkota) native to the western Mediterranean area of North Africa and Europe. It has been introduced to Madeira and Balearic Islands, and the Americas (in Montevid ...

in general shape. The feet have suction pads all along the toes and these are widest at the tips. There are strong claws on the third and fourth digit of each foot. The skin is fairly smooth with small tubercles which are often multi-keeled. The eyes have vertical pupils in bright light and are brown or golden. The body colour is quite variable, being generally greyish-brown with a paler, sometimes intermittent, stripe along the spine and darker transverse bars. The underside is paler and sometimes tinged yellow, especially near the vent. The East Canary gecko or Canary wall gecko is a species of lizard endemic to the eastern Canary Islands and often seen in Fuerteventura at night on outdoor walls and ceilings. They can grow to around 15 centimetres in length, and have suction pads all along the toes which are widest at the tips.

Geographic range

The East Canary gecko is found on the Canary Islands of

Fuerteventura Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the North Africa region, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the northwestern coast of Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNES ...

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

Lobos Lobos is the headquarters city of the Lobos Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It was founded on 2 June 1802 by José Salgado. Background Located 100 km from Buenos Aires, Lobos is currently a fertile agricultural area known ma ...

and several small islands north of Lanzarote.

Habitat

It is very common in a range of habitats up to an altitude of about . These include cliffs, screes, gullies, salt flats with scrubby vegetation, dunes, cultivated land and even inside houses.

Biology

The diet of the East Canary gecko consists of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

s and other small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

Reproduction

The male East Canary gecko is larger than the female and is territorial during the breeding season. It is quite vocal and has a range of calls. The female lays one or more clutches of two oval eggs about long, in cracks, under stones or buried in sand. They probably hatch in 2 to 3 months and the baby geckos that emerge are long from snout to vent. Their colouring is rather more vivid than that of the adults. Females mature at about long, and they have been known to live for 17 years in captivity. Research has shown that the sex of the embryo is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. If this is or above the resulting offspring will be female but at lower temperatures it will be male.Perenquén majorero – ''Tarentola angustimentalis'' Steindachner, 1891
''Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles''. Retrieved 26 March 2012.

Conservation status

The East Canary gecko is listed as being of "least concern" in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This is because, although the range is very limited, it is common in many parts of that range, its habitats are not threatened and the population does not seem to be declining.