Homing behaviour of Lacerta agilis and Lacerta vivipara (Sauria, Lacertidae)

Abstract

Displacements over distances of 70-150 m were carried out with 48 L. agilis and 34 L. vivipara in order to determine their ability to return to their original home range. Return rates for 70 m displacements averaged 81.5 % for L. agilis and 50 % for L. vivipara; for 100 m displacements these figures were 66.7 % and 28.6 % respectively; 150 m displacements never resulted in homing. Most returns occurred within a few days. Probably both species are familiar with a far greater area than is suggested by their home range size.

Homeward bound: factors affecting homing ability in a polymorphic lizard

“…All the lizards were translocated only once to avoid pseudoreplication. The lizards were moved from the capture sites to four different distances in random directions: 50, 100, 150 and 200 m. The distances where arbitrarily chosen following experimental schemes used in previous literature (Spoecker, ; Strijbosch et al ., ; Ellis‐Quinn & Simon, ), but they all fell outside the maximum home‐range size calculated for the CSM population using the minimum convex polygon method (MCP males : n = 231, mean = 27.67 m 2 , maximum = 122.13 m 2 ; MCP females : n = 108, mean = 15.76 m 2 , maximum = 97.13 m 2 ). Based on these data and assuming a hypothetic maximum square home range of 100 m 2 , homing success was established when a lizard returned within 10 m from the capture site.…”

“…Significant differences between juvenile and adult homing success have been reported for Sceloporus orcutti and S. jarrovi , confirming the role of experience in finding the way back home (Weintraub, ; Ellis‐Quinn & Simon, ). On the other hand, no significant difference was ascertained between adult and subadult L. agilis and Z. vivipara , but this result could be conditioned by the small sample used in this experiment (Strijbosch et al ., ). In fact, the authors declared that a balanced number of males, females, adults and subadults was used for displacement, but the total number of lizards displaced at growing distances was 48 and 34, respectively for the sand and viviparous lizards.…”

“…The homing behaviour of this species was never studied before and it seemed to reflect a common pattern in small‐ and medium‐sized lizards as many species are able to home from different distances. In particular, some lacertids have shown similar behaviours, such as Podarcis siculus , Lacerta agilis and Zootoca vivipara , even if studies about this family are scanty (Strijbosch et al ., ; Chelazzi, ).…”

“…Several different factors take part in lizard homing, which effects largely vary from case to case according to species and individual characteristics, such as size (Freake, ) and age (Ellis‐Quinn & Simon, ), or distance from home range (Spoecker, ; Krekorian, ; Strijbosch et al ., ). Some species based their orientation on visual cues such as familiar landmarks (e.g.…”

“…Cagle, ; Barbour, Harvey & Hardin, ; Ciofi & Chelazzi, ; Plummer & Mills, ; Shetty & Shine, ; Butler, Malone & Clemann, ; Andres & Chambers, ; Caldwell & Nams, ; Hester, Price & Dorcas, ; Rittenhouse et al ., ; Germano & Bishop, ; Tucker & Lamer, ; Roe et al ., ), but lizards represent the most studied reptiles. Indeed, homing and orientation studies have focused on Iguanidae (Krekorian, ), Polychrotidae (Jenssen, ), Phrynosomatidae (Spoecker, ; Tinkle, ; Weintraub, ; Pianka & Parker, ; Ellis‐Quinn & Simon, , ), Scincidae (Freake, ; Punzo & Madragon, ), Diplodactylidae (Lettink, ), Gekkonidae (Gruber & Henle, ) and Lacertidae (Strijbosch, van Rooy & Voesenek, ; Foà, Bearzi & Baldaccini, ). Those studies have demonstrated that individuals of most species are able to return to their home ranges from distances ranging from 11 to 800 m, confirming that lizards often have a partial knowledge of areas larger than their home ranges (Spoecker, ; Strijbosch et al ., ; Jenssen, ).…”