A few questions about leo behavior

[muffin_song]

Hello all - I had two questions about leopard gecko behavior.

1. Do leos see straight ahead, or can they only see out of the sides of their eyes? This comes up whenever I am trying to get Scooter to notice a bug - not sure what's in her line of sight!

2. Yesterday, I got into a "staring contest" with Scooter - she wouldn't break eye contact! Personally, I was gushing over how adorable she is (I know, typical mammal :roll, but do female leos ever do this as a dominance thing? Or was she just concerned with the giant mammal looking down at her?

Thanks so much!

 

[Zux]

Hey there.

From what I can tell they seem to have extremely good vision both in front and from the side possibly equally good. In fact you may notice your Leo seems to see you silently move your arm or something and turns around to look even when it would seem he/she has his back to you. I believe they can see above them to a degree also.

A Leopard Gecko wont ever attempt to assert dominance over you no, that behavior was almost certainly he or she just being curious or a little wary perhaps, the former is most likely in my experience, they are very inquisitive creatures.

Hope that helped.


- Shane

 

[amsdadtodd]

I think Shane hit all the points dead on, they seem to have good horizontal coverage, and fair overhead.

 

[JessJohnson87]

I think they can see far distances to. I was sitting on the couch tonight nearest my dining room entrance and Ziggy was staring at me from his tank, a good 10-15 ft away, waiting for me to notice him so he could eat.

 

[muffin_song]

Thanks all - as always, the responses are appreciated!

I had an iguana as a teenager, and I remember being told then that iguana eyesight was primarily from the side, rather than the front. I don't know the validity of this claim, but it's what I remember.

 

[amsdadtodd]

That would make sense if you look at the eye placement. There is a lot of face in front of an iguana's eyes, not so much with a leo. BTW, leopard gecko's also have phenomenal night vision.

 

[mecoat]

I think they can see well in most directions, but for hunting they've got an extra bit of a cheat. Look at most leos, and you'll notice a line (stripe or spots) down from their eyes to the tip of the snout. On other animals similar markings help them focus forward on prey (like a sight line).

 

[Aimless]

Igs are also herbivores, while Leos are carnivores. that has a fair amount of impact on vision range.

if you google "eyesight in gecko" there is actually a fair amount of research on this, in different species.

this article is free and pretty interesting.

"Abstract
The nocturnal helmet gecko, Tarentola chazaliae, discriminates colors in dim moonlight when humans are color blind. The sensitivity of the helmet gecko eye has been calculated to be 350 times higher than human cone vision at the color vision threshold. The optics and the large cones of the gecko are important reasons why they can use color vision at low light intensities. Using photorefractometry and an adapted laboratory Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor of high resolution, we also show that the optical system of the helmet gecko has distinct concentric zones of different refractive powers, a so-called multifocal optical system. The intraspecific variation is large but in most of the individuals studied the zones differed by 15 diopters. This is of the same magnitude as needed to focus light of the wavelength range to which gecko photoreceptors are most sensitive. We compare the optical system of the helmet gecko to that of the diurnal day gecko, Phelsuma madagascariensis grandis. The optical system of the day gecko shows no signs of distinct concentric zones and is thereby monofocal."