2017
DOI: 10.1111/aec.12570
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Abstract: The diet of predators is a critical determinant of their ecological effects. Small vertebrate predators of invertebrates are often characterized as diet generalists based on diet descriptions, but few studies examine prey availability to determine whether prey choice occurs. We studied the prey availability in relation to the diet of two common and abundant, but understudied small vertebrates: Gehyra dubia, an arboreal nocturnal gecko, and Cryptoblepharus australis, an arboreal diurnal skink. We sampled lizard… Show more

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Cited by 11 publications
(11 citation statements)
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“…Other factors influencing lizard abundance, such as prey availability, predation pressure or thermal habitat suitability, may have played a role in shaping the community structure in this system, but at least some of these seem unlikely to be important drivers in this system. For example, we quantified arthropod prey availability and diet of G. dubia among the grazing regimes and found no significant effects of grazing treatments (Nordberg et al., ), suggesting that prey availability is presumably not driving the increased abundance of native house geckos in heavily grazed areas. Additionally, predation pressure (measured using artificial model lizards of G. dubia in another study) was highest in heavily grazed paddocks (Nordberg and Schwarzkopf, in review), suggesting increased predation pressure should reduce the populations of G. dubia in heavily grazed environments compared to other stocking rates, although we found the opposite.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 97%
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“…Other factors influencing lizard abundance, such as prey availability, predation pressure or thermal habitat suitability, may have played a role in shaping the community structure in this system, but at least some of these seem unlikely to be important drivers in this system. For example, we quantified arthropod prey availability and diet of G. dubia among the grazing regimes and found no significant effects of grazing treatments (Nordberg et al., ), suggesting that prey availability is presumably not driving the increased abundance of native house geckos in heavily grazed areas. Additionally, predation pressure (measured using artificial model lizards of G. dubia in another study) was highest in heavily grazed paddocks (Nordberg and Schwarzkopf, in review), suggesting increased predation pressure should reduce the populations of G. dubia in heavily grazed environments compared to other stocking rates, although we found the opposite.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 97%
“…On the other hand, velvet and native house geckos occurred in all grazing treatments, but velvet geckos were less abundant in areas with heavy stocking rates, possibly as a result of increased competitive pressure and abundance from native house geckos. The abundance of native house geckos was greatest in the more heavily stocked paddocks, suggesting they were resistant to, and even benefitted from, disturbance by livestock grazing (Neilly et al., ; Nordberg, Murray, Alford, & Schwarzkopf, ). Heavily stocked paddocks also showed low occupancy of velvet and spiny‐tailed geckos; therefore, native house geckos likely benefit from reduced competition (Diamond, ; Luiselli, ).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
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“…The community dynamics in our system of small lizards, predatory birds, and invertebrates make for an interesting predator-prey dynamic. Gehyra dubia are an insectivorous lizard, preying on a variety of arthropod prey items, including spiders 50 , but large predatory huntsman spiders have also been known to be predators of juvenile and even adult lizards and frogs 35 . Huntsman spiders would be potential prey items for geckos when they are small, competitors when they are equivalent size, and predators when the spiders grow larger than the geckos.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…We selected a locally abundant lizard, the Australian native house gecko ( Gehyra dubia ) as our model to measure predation risk in relation to their predators and the abundance of alternative prey (invertebrates). Native house geckos are small arboreal, insectivorous geckos found throughout eastern Australia 34,50 . While G. dubia are primarily nocturnal, they thermoregulate (bask) in the late evening and early morning sun 44 , making them susceptible to predation by many crepuscular predators.…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%