The salt flats fighter: agonistic survival of Liolaemus fabiani in the Salar de Atacama

Abstract

17Liolaemus fabiani is a lizard that lives in the Salar de Atacama, located in the center of the 18 Atacama Desert, northern Chile, one of the driest places on the planet. Likely due to the extreme 19 environmental conditions of their habitat, L. fabiani has colonized all watercourse shores of the 20 Puilar pond where the primary source of food, flies, are confined. By 'owning' these shores, they 21 can retain resources, explaining their natural sense of territory and their world-renowned 22 aggressive territorial behavior. From the perspective of the lizard, the battlefield is a narrow 23 stretch between mountains of halite salt and the water, which leads to a winner-take-all type 24 territory. The winning lizard is rewarded with control of the food supply, access to females and 25 a privileged space to survive. This modern gladiator faces his opponent with an unmatched 26 ferocity, although there are rarely, if ever, deaths between the contenders. Like other vertebrates, 27 the defense of the territory is a cooperative job with the alpha female. She releases pheromone 28 compounds, conferring an advantage to her partner to proceed ruthlessly to attack the intruder, 29 on land or in water, in order to obtain victory. and then plummet to below 0 °C at night. Rainfall is sparse and falls in intermittent cycles 37 generated by the austral Andean winter (Ortlieb, 1995). The desert covers approximately 2,800 38 km 2 and its altitude ranges between 2400 and 2500 meters elevation above sea level (Marquet et 39 al., 1998). This unique environment is home to various animals living in this extreme area, 40offering diverse examples of successful survival strategies (Pincheira-Donoso, 2012). One such 41 creature is Liolaemus fabiani, (Yáñez & Núñez, 1983), a lizard known to dwell around San Pedro 42 de Atacama. L. fabiani is probably one of few animals in the Salar de Atacama whose survival 43 strategy includes agonistic skills (Veloso et al. 1982; Núñez y Fox 1985, Núñez y Veloso, 2001. 44 45Although initially described in the northern salt flats (26°46'S, 68°14'W), L. fabiani has been 46 reported in vegetative patches and waterways such as the wide lagoons of Cejar and Chaxa, and 47 the smaller lagoons of Puilar and Punta Brava (Labra et al., 2001). In this report, the agonistic 48 behavior is described in the shores of the Agua de Quelana lagoon (Fig. 1). Only one other lizard, 49Liolaemus constanzae is known to inhabit this area. L. fabiani can be spotted darting over the 50 salt crust; its orange, red, yellow, green, and blue skin flashing as it dashes over the rough, manner that facilitates its identification (Pough et al, 1998; Labra, 2011). Liolaemus lizards use 58 chemoreception (odors, feces, skin and precloacal secretions) for various social and sensory 59 purposes (Labra et al., 2002; Labra, 2008). This has allowed individuals to develop self-60 recognition (i.e., to discriminate between their own odors and those of other members of the 61 species) and to evaluate the sex of other lizards (Labra, 20...

Reptiles of the Atacama Region, northern Chile: localities, and representation in provinces, ecogeographic landscapes, vegetation formations and protected areas

“…Currently the reptiles of Chile comprise 135 species, 20 genera and 11 families (Ruiz de Gamboa 2016Gamboa , 2020. The reptiles of the Atacama Region have been the focus of specific studies (Ortiz 1977(Ortiz , 1980Núñez & Torres-Mura 1992;Moreno & Ortiz 2001;Vidal et al 2002;Victoriano et al 2003;Vidal & Ortiz 2004;Fariña et al 2008;Valladares & Briones 2012;Troncoso-Palacios & Ferri-Yáñez 2013;Troncoso-Palacios 2014a;Ibáñez et al 2015;Troncoso-Palacios et al 2015), new species records (Ortiz 1987;Young-Downey & Moreno 1991;Núñez & Navarro 1992;Navarro & Núñez 1993;Núñez et al 2001Núñez et al , 2003Marambio-Alfaro & Troncoso-Palacios 2014), taxonomic updates (Troncoso-Palacios & Ferri-Yáñez 2012;Troncoso-Palacios & Garín 2013;Ruiz de Gamboa et al 2018), specific lists (Troncoso-Palacios & Marambio-Alfaro, 2011;Troncoso-Palacios 2014a,Troncoso-Palacios 2014b, and studies that summarize its reptile fauna (Valladares 2011;Marambio-Alfaro & Hiriart-Lamas 2019), but without further details of its geographic distribution. With regards to endemism, this is the region of Chile with the highest percentage of endemic reptile species, reaching 95% (Mella 2019).…”

Salt to conserve: a review on the ecology and preservation of hypersaline ecosystems

“…at salinity levels >120 g/l) maintain populations of amphibians, reptiles and associated terrestrial taxa (i.e. Mohebbi, 2010; Asem et al ., 2014; Marambio‐Alfaro et al ., 2017), and an extensive diversity of waterbird species depend on these habitats for feeding and breeding [Gajardo & Redón (2019 b ) and references therein; Sorenson, Hoven & Neil, 2020). However, our current understanding of the bio‐geochemical mechanisms sustaining hypersaline biotas is far from complete, raising a compelling need to incorporate multiple disciplines into holistic research designs (Tweedley et al ., 2019).…”