Marking territory

[MartinW]

Do geckos mark territory at all?

[Samba]

I'm not sure if they do, but I do notice my male, when inside his enclosure, 'drags' his underside and tail around the perimeter sometimes. When temporarily placed in the female's tank he does the same thing. Since male have such prominent femoral pores that secrete a waxy substance, maybe he's trying to mark his territory. Never gave much thought to it, but that's what I always thought he was doing! Do some research on it, and let us know!

[MartinW]

I found an interesting article named "Social experience affects territorial and reproductive behaviours in male leopard geckos, Eublepharis macularius" at http://cluster3.biosci.utexas.edu/faculty/lizard/public/SocialExperience.pdf . It says the following about males:

"Scent marking is a characteristic territorial behaviour in which the preanal pores are pressed down onto the substrate and swiped laterally."

I didn't read the whole article, I plan to within the next few days though cuz it seems interesting.

Martin