Urbanization is rapidly converting natural landscapes into habitats dominated by man-made structures. Urbanized areas possess a range of novel stressors such as increased human disturbance, different suites of predators, new food types and altered habitats and complexity. Species may need to adjust aspects of their behaviour to cope with these novel stressors and persist in areas following urbanization. Sydney, Australia's largest city, has undergone rapid population and geographic expansion over two centuries, but remains a mosaic of natural and heavily urbanized habitats. We adopted a behavioural syndrome approach to investigate whether urbanization has influenced the behaviour of the delicate skink Lampropholis delicata in the Sydney region. Lizards from one of the urban populations were more active, and more likely to forage for food, than individuals from the other three populations, but there was no difference in activity or foraging behaviour between urban and non-urban populations overall. Skinks from urban and non-urban habitats did not differ in their exploratory or basking behaviours. Activity, exploratory behaviour and foraging behaviour were all repeatable, and a behavioural syndrome linking high activity with increased exploration was evident. Our study documents the impact of urbanization on an understudied taxonomic group in the Southern Hemisphere, where urbanization has occurred relatively recently, and suggests that the influence on behaviour might be related to the degree of urbanization that has occurred.

Invasive species are considered one of the greatest threats to native ecosystems, second only to habitat loss and fragmentation. Despite this, the temporal dynamics of invasions are poorly understood, with most studies focusing on a single time point, providing us with only a snapshot of the biology and genetics of the invader. We investigated the invasion of Lord Howe Island by the delicate skink Lampropholis delicata and assessed the introduction history and genetic structure of this species over a 5-year period. Using genetic data taken from 2007, and again in 2011/12, we examined changes in the population genetic structure (whether new haplotypes had been introduced to the island, and shifts in haplotype frequencies) of the species on the island between these two time points. No new haplotypes were introduced to the island between 2007 and 2011/12; however, significant shifts in haplotype frequencies across the island were detected. We conclude that the delicate skink is expanding its range into the southern regions of the island and that the haplotype frequencies on Lord Howe Island are still in a state of highly dynamic flux. Our study highlights the importance of considering invasions as dynamic and studying them in such a way that enable us to better manage their impacts.