Behavioral Diversity as Biological Diversity: Introduced Cats and Lava Lizard Wariness

Island tameness: living on islands reduces flight initiation distance

“…A larger sample size is needed to ascertain whether any consistent relationship exists between FID and island area. In conjunction with frequent reports of decreased diversity and abundance of predators on islands [3,4,6,17,37], reduced FID in lizards on islands is consistent with the conjecture that island tameness evolves when predation is rare or absent, making benefits of fleeing low or non-existent, whereas costs of maintaining escape behaviour remain when predators are scarce. In lacertid lizards of the Mediterranean Basin, FID and other escape variables are reduced on islets with fewer predators [3,4,13,14].…”

“…To reduce escape costs when predation is relaxed or absent, shortened FID is expected to evolve over time. Several recent lizard studies have shown that FID is diminished in populations on islands where predation is relaxed [2,6,13] or is increased on islands where prey are exposed to feral cats and dogs [6,17]. In the lizard Podarcis pityusensis, which exists only on Ibiza, Formentera and nearby islets, FID increases as predation intensity on the islets increases [14].…”

Influence of predation pressure on the escape behaviour of Podarcis muralis lizards

“…Risk of capture should be traded off against the cost of fleeing, and animals should flee only when predators are a serious threat (Burger and Gochfeld, 1990;Martín and López, 1996;Cooper, 1997a;Kramer and Bonen-fant, 1997;Recarte et al, 1998;Martín and López, 1999a). Hence, predator avoidance behaviour should vary with predation pressure, and increasing harassment by predators may lead to increasing wariness of lizards (Stone et al, 1994;Blázquez et al, 1997). Most available information suggests that the ability to assess the level of predation risk and the presence of flexibility in the decision-making process are adaptive characteristics of escape behaviour, regardless of their genetic basis (Delibes and Blázquez, 1998).…”

Understanding Invasive Species in the Galapagos Islands

“…Cats were introduced by ships visiting the islands and by colonists, as pets. Historically, they have been present on the five inhabited islands (Baltra, Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Floreana, and Isabela) as well as in unpopulated areas of northern Isabela (Konecny 1987;Stone et al 1994). …”