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by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-24
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The paper studied how incubation conditions (temperature and humidity) and post-hatching social rearing versus isolation affect development and welfare-related traits in captive-bred tokay geckos (Gekko gecko). Using incubation environment manipulations and different rearing setups, the authors report that incubation temperature—but not humidity—was associated with phenotypic sex, hatchling size, and incubation duration, and that females selected nest sites with higher temperature and lower humidity. After hatching, social group size did not affect snout vent length, growth, or body condition. The paper is a preprint (version 2) and is explicitly stated as not peer reviewed, and it does not discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.
Abstract
Parental effects, non-genetic effects that parents exert on their offspring, can result in adaptive phenotypes that ensure offspring survival. In captivity, reptiles often experience unnatural incubation and rearing conditions due to limited nest site choices, which can negatively impact individual development and welfare. Incubation temperature and humidity are especially critical for reptile development, influencing factors such as sex determination, growth, and morphology. However, the conditions experienced after hatching, such as social housing, are far less often considered. Here, I studied the effects of both the incubation environment (temperature and humidity) and social rearing compared to isolation rearing on the development of captive bred tokay geckos (Gekko gecko). I find that both temperature and humidity affect hatchling sex and size but only temperature affected incubation duration. Furthermore, females selected nest sites with higher temperatures. After hatching, rearing group size did not affect Snout vent length or growth, but body condition was higher in offspring raised alone and in smaller family groups compared to larger family groups. My findings confirm temperature dependent sex determination in tokay geckos and a role for humidity in lizard development. Importantly, being raised in larger social groups led to a reduction in body condition across the first six months of life, which was not reflected in SVL alone. My results suggest that despite ample food available, competition within family groups does reduce offspring body condition. Therefore, care should be taken when raising tokay geckos in captivity to provide nest site options and enough food and shelter to ensure optimal development of all offspring.
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This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
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This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
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In captivity, reptiles often experience unnatural incubation and rearing conditions due to limited nest site choices, which can negatively impact individual development and welfare. Incubation temperature and humidity are especially critical for reptile development, influencing factors such as sex, growth, and morphology. However, the conditions experienced after hatching, such as social housing, are far less often considered. Here, I studied the effects of both the incubation environment (temperature and humidity) and social rearing compared to isolation rearing on the development of captive bred tokay geckos (Gekko gecko). I find that incubation temperature but not humidity are associated with phenotypic sex, hatchling size and incubation duration. Furthermore, females selected nest sites with higher temperature and lower humidity. After hatching, rearing group size did not affect snout vent length, growth or body condition. My findings indicate an association between incubation temperature and phenotypic sex despite the presence of sex chromosomes in this species. Therefore, care should be taken when raising tokay geckos in captivity to provide nest site options and ensure optimal development of all offspring.
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2TP9C
Other Animal Sciences, Zoology
Captive rearing, enrichment, husbandry, reptile, social housing, Welfare
Published: 2025-07-16 23:01
Last Updated: 2026-05-05 10:00
CC BY Attribution 4.0 International
Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data and Code Availability Statement:
Data generated during this study and the analysis code are available for download from the Open Science Framework (OSF, link for review purposes: https://osf.io/gdq8y/?view_only=783a534dfbea420b9d2aa9be98913407
Language:
English
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