Marbled Velvet Gecko

During our recent trip to Alice Springs, we wanted to check out some areas to the east which we had not seen during our visit years ago. We headed off to the East MacDonnell Ranges, which turned out to be one of the better places for wildlife. We spent the whole day at a wonderful area called Trephina Gorge. Great spot for wildlife, especially birds.

It was getting dark by the time we started heading back to Alice Springs, about 70 km away. On the way back we stopped at a place called Coroboree Rock to have a look for some night animals. It was still windy so I wasn't sure if we would see anything. Besides a small bat disappearing over the rocks and a small Bynoe's Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) running into a hole, it was pretty quiet. Suddenly on the wind-less side of the rock I spotted a Marbled Velvet Gecko (Oedura marmorata) waiting to catch dinner. I managed to get a few photos and some video before our wonderful gecko decided he wanted to get away from these annoying people interfering with his dinnertime.

The typical gorge habitat around Trephina Gorge with lots of good cracks and crevices for reptiles, especially geckos such as the Marbled Velvet Gecko.

Velvet geckos (Oedura) in Australia tend to be one of the larger gecko species, with Oedura marmorata being one of the biggest of the thirteen species found here. Our gecko was about 200 mm long, but I have seen bigger ones in the Pilbara in WA.