These delicate little pastel-colored lizards seem too fragile to survive in the extreme heat and dryness of the southwestern U.S. deserts, but they get along just fine, thank you, primarily by coming out only at night. I've heard that they're often mistaken for baby Gila monsters due to their pinkish hues and banded pattern, but this mistake is presumably made only by people who've never seen a Gila monster in person. Banded geckos are tiny, fragile-looking, smooth, and fast, whereas Gila monsters are huge, bulky, bumpy, and slow. This one and one other were found on a night where our main goal was to find a Gila monster, but alas, it was not to be.

I finally found a banded gecko during the day (under a rock) so I could get some decent pictures. Over the course of three weeks, I ended up finding nine of them under rocks. They're pretty twitchy and are not so fond of being uncovered for long, so it takes some patience to get them to pose.

Banded geckos are most often seen at night on roadways. They look like leaves blowing across the road.

I was driving on the road at night looking for nocturnal snakes and lizards when I caught the white reflection of this little gecko in the road. For a moment I was very excited, because I was in an area of Anza-Borrego known to contain the elusive Barefoot Gecko (Coleonyx switaki). But after pulling my car over, grabbing my camera and flashlight, and racing back to where the gecko was, all that awaited me was a fairly common Desert Banded Gecko. Still, they are beautiful little lizards.