Set to a heavy bass beat:

It’s a ground-dwelling lizard from the dry grassland

You can find it in the day burrowed in the sand

It’s native to Asia, you can find it in Iran

Or maybe North India or Pakistan

 

It’s crepuscular, it don’t come out in the day

And nighttime is not its time to play.

It’s active during twilight, that means dusk and dawn

If you can’t catch it then that means it’s gone

 

Underground, when it’s hot you’ll find it in its burrow

Ectothermic that’s it, can’t hold its temperature-oh

When it’s cold you can find it in semi-hibernation

Livin’ off its fat reserves, that’s a state of brumation

 

It eat crickets and roaches, grasshoppers and worms

It gets grosser, wait a minute, I want to confirm

About once a month it sheds its skin

Then it eats it all up from tail to chin

 

Break

 

It’s got a keen sense of sight, sees color in the dark

Keener smelling, keener hearing than a great white shark

The only gecko feature that makes it offbeat,

Is it isn’t all sticky on the bottom of its feet.

 

That’s okay, it has small nails for climbing twigs and rocks

To get away from other reptiles, mister snake and missus fox

It replaces its teeth every 90 days

It’s got a hundred of them, but not a single one stays

 

If it gets into trouble, it detaches its tail

It happens autonomically which means it can’t fail

The tail stays and wiggles, while it makes its getaway

So it can stay the predator and not become the prey.

But the coolest of the features that sets it apart

From its gecko brethren from the very start

Are its moving eyelids as up and down they go

A wonder of nature as smooth as my flow

 

Break

 

The last thing I’ll tell you is its family tree

Come on now and sing it along with me

Animalia, Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata

Lacertilia, Eublepharis, species macularius

 

And that my friends is the leopard gecko

When you hear its name I want to hear you echo

And tell all your friends at the Science Cafe!

All the facts you’ve heard about it right here today