Abstract:We designed four separate experiments to study within population variation in locomotor performance in the oriental leaf-toed gecko (Hemidactylus bowringii) induced by four factors (body temperature, feeding, caudal autotomy and reproductive condition). Ambient temperature influenced the gecko′s body temperature, thereby influencing its locomotor performance. Sprint speed increased with increasing in body temperature within the lower temperature range, and then decreased at higher body temperatures. The pattern of the thermal dependence of sprint speed was similar between both sexes, however, adult female run a little faster than adult male at any given level of body temperatures, but there was no statistically significance between the mean values for each sex. The maximal distance traveled without stopping (hereafter the maximal distance) increased with increasing in body temperature within the lower temperature range (from 17 ℃ to 27 ℃), and then did not vary at higher body temperatures (from 27 ℃ to 37 ℃) in adult females, but this pattern of the thermal dependence of maximal distance differed from adult males. Adult males run shorter than adult females at any given level of body temperatures, and were not significantly influenced by body temperature in the maximal distance. Sprint speed was positively correlated with the maximal distance in each sex. When the influence of variation in the maximal distance was removed, there was still no significant difference in sprint speed between both sexes. The feeding, tail loss and gravidity of females reduced sprint speed at the experimental body temperatures (27 ℃ and 31 ℃) in all case. And, tail loss of geckos also reduced the maximal distance, but taking food or gravidity of females did not. The effects of interaction of these factors with body temperature and sexes were not apparent in most case. These results suggest that physical burden and caudal autotomy should be the origin of variation in locomotor capacity in H. bowringii. We conclude that some internal and external factors may proximately induce a certain degree of intrapopulational variation in functional performance of lizards.