Indirect evidence of predation and intraspecific agression in three sympatric lizard species from a semi-arid area in northeastern Brazil

Passos, Daniel Cunha; Galdino, Conrado A. B.; Bezerra, Castiele Holanda; Zanchi, Djan

doi:10.1590/s1984-46702013000400016

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Our findings are inconsistent with the assumption that males engage substantially more in aggressive behaviors than females in polygynous mating systems (Kokko and Rankin, 2006). Indeed, empirical studies have not established any consistent relationship between sex and injury, with some studies finding no difference between the sexes (Vervust et al, 2009;Donihue et al, 2016), and others finding a higher proportion of injuries in males (Gvozdik, 2000) or in females (Passos et al, 2013). The extent to which sexes differ in aggressive behavior needs to be determined in future studies by including behavioral observations of natural populations or behavioral experiments that include both males and females.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 96%

Head Size of Male and Female Lizards Increases With Population Density Across Island Populations in the Bahamas

et al. 2019

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 96%

Head Size of Male and Female Lizards Increases With Population Density Across Island Populations in the Bahamas

et al. 2019

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“…First, elevated frequency of tail loss can imply an increase in intraspecific competition. Despite evidence supporting the role of competition for autotomy in some lizards (Itescu et al, 2017; Jaksić & Busack, 1984; Passos et al, 2013), there is virtually no confirmation for snakes or amphisbaenians. The observation of ‘mating balls’—including tail wrestling—(Madsen & Shine, 1993; Shine et al, 2003) and other male–male combats in several snakes, but with no broken tails reported (Shine, 1978, 1994), suggest a somewhat limited contribution of intraspecific aggression driven autotomy, at least among snakes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unwrapping broken tails: Biological and environmental correlates of predation pressure in limbless reptiles

Moura

Costa

Abegg

et al. 2022

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Studying species interactions in nature often requires elaborated logistics and intense fieldwork. The difficulties in such task might hinder our ability to answer questions on how biotic interactions change with the environment. Fortunately, a workaround to this problem lies within scientific collections. For some animals, the inspection of preserved specimens can reveal the scars of past antagonistic encounters, such as predation attempts. A common defensive behaviour that leaves scars on animals is autotomy, the loss of a body appendage to escape predation. By knowing the collection site of preserved specimens, it is possible to assess the influence of organismal biology and the surrounding environment in the occurrence of autotomy. We gathered data on tail loss for 8189 preserved specimens of 33 snake and 11 amphisbaenian species to investigate biological and environmental correlates of autotomy in reptiles. We applied generalized linear mixed effect models to evaluate whether body size, sex, life‐stage, habitat use, activity pattern, biome, tropicality, temperature and precipitation affect the probability of tail loss in limbless reptiles. We observed autotomy in 23.6% of examined specimens, with 18.7% of amphisbaenian and 33.4% of snake specimens showing tail loss. The probability of tail loss did not differ between snakes and amphisbaenians, but it was higher among large‐sized specimens, particularly in adults and females. Chance of tail loss was higher for diurnal and arboreal species, and among specimens collected in warmer regions, but it was unaffected by biome, precipitation, and tropicality. Autotomy in limbless reptiles was affected by size‐dependent factors that interplay with ontogeny and sexual dimorphism, although size‐independent effects of life‐stage and sex also shaped behavioural responses to predators. The increase in probability of tail loss with verticality and diurnality suggests a risk‐balance mechanism between species habitat use and activity pattern. Although autotomy is more likely in warmer regions, it seems unrelated to seasonal differences in snakes and amphisbaenians activity. Our findings reveal several processes related to predator–prey interactions involving limbless reptiles, demonstrating the importance of scientific collections to unveil ecological mechanisms at different spatio‐temporal scales.

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Unveiling a spatial tail breakage outbreak in a lizard population

2017

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Many ecological attributes of organisms vary spatially. This strict dependency upon space generally arises by individuals occupying places with the necessary resources and conditions for survival. For lizards, losing the tail is an evolved mechanism that allows them to escape predators or to avoid aggressive intraspecific agonistic interactions. We evaluated the spatial relation of tail loss in a population of the lizard Tropidurus montanus. Our results support the occurrence of a spatial cluster of autotomized lizards. However, we cannot relate the cluster formation to the crowding of neighbouring lizards nor to individuals’ body size. Tail loss in lizards is known to be related to predatory attacks or intraspecific aggression, and we now show that tail autotomy occurs in a non-random way regarding space, and thus is also related to the space occupied by individuals in populations.

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Indirect evidence of predation and intraspecific agression in three sympatric lizard species from a semi-arid area in northeastern Brazil

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Head Size of Male and Female Lizards Increases With Population Density Across Island Populations in the Bahamas

Head Size of Male and Female Lizards Increases With Population Density Across Island Populations in the Bahamas

Unwrapping broken tails: Biological and environmental correlates of predation pressure in limbless reptiles

Unveiling a spatial tail breakage outbreak in a lizard population

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