Web-footed Gecko

For life on soft sand. The web-footed gecko is one of the few reptiles that lives right on the loose, shifting slip faces of Namib dunes, and the skin webs between its toes act like tiny sand-shoes, spreading its body weight over a larger area so it can run across the surface at speed without its feet sinking in. The same webbed feet double as scoops and shovels — the gecko is an efficient burrower, and it uses its front and hind feet alternately to fling sand aside and dig the deep daytime burrow it needs to survive. Other unrelated desert lizards, such as the shovel-snouted lizard, have evolved fringed or webbed feet for the same reason.

The central Namib gets almost no rain, but it does get frequent night and early-morning fog, formed when moist air off the cold Benguela current meets the hot land. The web-footed gecko is one of many Namib animals adapted to harvest this fog. When it is out on a foggy night or emerges into fog at dawn, water condenses on its body, on rocks, and on sparse vegetation, and the gecko drinks by licking the droplets off surfaces and off its own skin and eyes. It also gets moisture from the bodies of the insects it eats. Between fogs it conserves water by staying in its humid burrow through the day.

Two reasons. The pale salmon-pink to sandy colour is camouflage that matches the reddish Namib dune sand almost exactly, hiding the gecko from owls, jackals, snakes, and other predators. The near-translucency of its skin is thought to be partly a consequence of that thin, lightly pigmented skin and partly an adaptation to the desert — a thin, pale integument reflects rather than absorbs heat and radiation. In strong light you can sometimes make out the outline of internal organs and the skeleton through the flanks. The large, dark, upward-and-forward-facing eyes are for hunting insects in near-total darkness.

It is kept by experienced keepers who can recreate its very specific conditions, and captive breeding does happen, but it is a specialist and a poor beginner choice. It needs a tall enclosure with a deep bed of fine, slightly packed sand it can burrow into, a strong day-night temperature drop, very low ambient humidity but a humid burrow zone, gentle nightly misting or a fog source to mimic the coastal fog it drinks from, and a diet of appropriately small live insects. The skin is delicate and the animal stresses easily, so handling should be minimal. Wild-caught imports often do poorly, so captive-bred stock is important.