Clothing color mediates lizard responses to humans in a tropical forest

Abstract

Identifying how ecotourism affects wildlife can lower its environmental impact.Human presence is an inherent component of ecotourism, which can impact animal behavior because animals often perceive humans as predators and, consequently, spend more time on human-directed antipredator behaviors and less on other fitness-relevant activities. We tested whether human clothing color affects water anole (Anolis aquaticus) behavior at a popular ecotourism destination in Costa Rica, testing the hypothesis that animals are more tolerant of humans wearing their sexually selected signaling color. We examined whether clothing resembling the primary signaling color (orange) of water anoles increases number of anole sightings and ease of capture. Research teams mimicked an ecotourism group by searching for anoles wearing one of three shirt treatments: orange, green, or blue. We conducted surveys at three different sites: a primary forest, secondary forest, and abandoned pasture.Wearing orange clothing resulted in more sightings and greater capture rates compared with blue or green. A higher proportion of males were captured when wearing orange whereas sex ratios of captured anoles were more equally proportional in the surveys when observers wore green or blue. We also found that capture success was greater when more people were present during a capture attempt. We demonstrate that colors "displayed" by perceived predators (i.e., humans) alter antipredator behaviors in water anoles. Clothing choice could have unintended impacts on wildlife, and wearing colors resembling the sexually selected signaling color might enhance tolerance toward humans.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

Research on Embroidery Feature Recognition Algorithm of Traditional National Costumes Based on Double-Layer Model

“…It is assumed that x z ′ represents the color feature point set of traditional national clothing embroidery pattern [9,10], l s ′ represents the n color feature, h f ′ represents the color space scale of the pattern, g s ′ represents the category number of color features, sg g ′ represents the vector of each color feature, k x ′ represents the distribution probability of each color in the pattern, and g d ′ represents the maximum observed value of each color distribution state in the pattern, en, x z ′ is calculated using formula (1):…”

“…In the formula, L total represents the distribution coefficient of clothing embroidery feature texture, and S SR represents the edge feature coefficient of clothing embroidery feature texture. e priority coefficient of embroidery feature output of traditional national costumes is determined by formula (10).…”

An applied ecology of fear framework: linking theory to conservation practice

“…However, there are still gaps in our understanding of the salient cues that generate fear responses in wild animals, and the spatial and temporal scales at which animals respond to perceived risk, necessitating further research. Subtle differences in sensory stimuli can mediate fear responses; for example, Costa Rican water anoles ( Anolis aquaticus ) change their anti‐predator behavior in response to the color of people’s clothing (Fondren, Swierk, & Putman, 2019). Some signals of fear are likely to be overlooked by practitioners but could be important to animals.…”

Examination of color preferences of invasive green anoles in the Ogasawara Islands

“…For example, a male displays his dewlap in conspecific communication such as mating or territory guarding (Nicholson et al 2007). When making behavioral decisions based on visual input, a wide variety of wildlife can rely on color (Aronsson and Gamberale‐Stille 2008, Kazemi et al 2014, Newport et al 2017), as do the Anolis lizards (Putman et al 2017, Fondren et al 2020). However, the effect of color on the behavior of green anoles has not been examined, and the red color of the current adhesive traps was chosen because it was easier for trap maintainers to locate.…”