Has anyone on this list done any research into gecko social structures with different species? The reason I ask this, is for the past 3 years I have been running an experiment with my leopard geckos. The original experiment was a self-sustaining vivarium for the leopard geckos. That means the eggs were allowed to incubate and babies were allowed to hatch and grow with n the same enclosure with the parents. I have witnessed many interesting behaviors since the start of this experiment and now it has moved in to the observation of the social structure of my leopard geckos. The first thing that was surprising with this experiment was the parental tolerance of the babies. The parents don't bother the babies and the babies actually stay within close proximity to the parents most of the time. I believe this may be a protective behavior because certain would be predators may be scared away by the parents protecting themselves which in turn protects the babies. Once the original ! babies started getting older, I noticed the formation of a social structure within my geckos much like that of group of gorillas. There was the alpha male and then a submissive one. The males would occasionally spar but it was nothing like what happens if you put to two separate males together out side of a group like this. Once, I actually took a male offspring from before I started this experiment and put him in the enclosure to see what would happen. Not only did the Alpha male get in to a big fight with the newcomer male, the other submissive male joined in too. It was a fight to the death and I received a pretty nasty bite from my big male trying to break it up. The alpha male has his pick between the three other females and sometime if he is not paying attention the other male may get a go at a responsive female. They are all in a 48"x18"x18" enclosure, so there is plenty of room for them all. An observation I have notice which definitely needs more research is there m! aybe a form of communication between the geckos. I'm not a biologist and really don't have time to do it. So I encourage anybody out there to look into this more. What I have noticed is behaviors consisting of nudges, nips and body movements that I can only explain as a form of communication. I know I have seen this form of communication in other animals, I just can't think of what they are and where I saw it.
I now have 3 generations of geckos living in the same vivarium. I have had my original female die probably due to calcium deficiency and was took weak because she was popping out eggs like a machine and I had to remove another female because she was showing signs of the same problem. I also recently removed the submissive male due to increased fighting. I believe this because of the decreased number of females in the setup. The babies are doing great and the adults are still laying eggs. I'm planning on restarting the experiment again for more observations Moving on to another group for several reasons. Mostly because of inbreeding risks and to recreate the whole thing again.
Has anybody seen these behaviors with Leos or with any other gecko species? Has anybody ever done anything like this with other geckos?
Do leopard geckos live in colonies in the wild? I don't really know much about their wild natural history. Any info or thoughts would be appreciated.
Regards, Patrick Ian Huddleson
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