Behavior
The western banded gecko is secretive and nocturnal, foraging at night for small insects and spiders, and is one of the few reptiles that control scorpion populations by eating baby scorpions. If captured, they squeak and may discard their tail. As a defense mechanism, they can also curl their tails over their bodies to mimic a scorpion. Females lay up to three clutches of one to two soft-shelled eggs in the spring and summer. Emerging on warm nights around 80 degrees F, they can be seen around porch lights looking for an easy meal, retreating if the temperature rises too high or drops too low. Eggs hatch after six weeks.
Read more about this topic: Coleonyx Variegatus
Famous quotes containing the word behavior:
“One never gets to know a person’s character better than by watching his behavior during decisive moments.... It is always only danger which forces the most deeply hidden strengths and abilities of a human being to come forth.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The confusion of emotions with behavior causes no end of unnecessary trouble to both adults and children. Behavior can be commanded; emotions can’t. An adult can put controls on a child’s behavior—at least part of the time—but how do you put controls on what a child feels? An adult can impose controls on his own behavior—if he’s grown up—but how does he order what he feels?”
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“Children can’t make their own rules and no child is happy without them. The great need of the young is for authority that protects them against the consequences of their own primitive passions and their lack of experience, that provides with guides for everyday behavior and that builds some solid ground they can stand on for the future.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)