Jungle Leopard Geckos

The Jungle morph changes the neat lateral banding of a leopard gecko into a swirling, broken pattern that extends onto the tail. Because the trait does not breed by simple rules, it is one of the harder morphs to buy with confidence. Although Ron Tremper first produced it in 1991 and it remains one of the classic patterns in the hobby, a seller's proven line matters more here than the label on the listing.

Appearance

Rather than the tidy dots or bands found on a normal leopard gecko, the body has bands that are incomplete or broken. These rings on the tail are also not clean and appear broken or absent. This creates a swirling, almost psychedelic pattern in place of tidy bands or dots. Because the pattern is not fixed and is broken, individual Jungle geckos vary widely and two animals rarely look alike.

Genetics

The inheritance of Jungle is a matter of dispute. It is often described as polygenic and is likely controlled by several genes rather than one single locus. People have also called it both polygenic and recessive. Whether the trait acts as dominant, recessive or polygenic remains unclear. The visible pattern requires several mutated alleles to be present together, so an animal with only some of them can look completely normal. Because breeder selection is as important as genetics, be careful with a gecko marketed as a Jungle het, because it will not breed like a single-gene het. Pos Jungle is listed alongside Jungle for an animal from Jungle-carrying stock that does not show the pattern itself. Jungle is also known as Aberrant, Funky Jungle and Jungle phase. Aberrant has a narrower meaning in the wider hobby as a break on only the body or only the tail instead of both. These two terms are not always interchangeable. No complex or allelic partner is documented for Jungle.