Ecology and Ontogenetic Variation of Diet in the Pigmy Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma Douglasii)

Lahti, Megan E.; Beck, Daniel

doi:10.1674/0003-0031(2008)159[327:eaovod]2.0.co;2

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Therefore, the prey preferences exhibited by the green lizards [8] may in theory be consistent with a food niche partitioning pattern, and thus with the competition-avoidance hypothesis. Ontogenetic differences in prey types were also found in other lizard species (e.g., [36]). Data on food habits of our green lizard population from western France are not available.…”

Section: Ecological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 65%

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Ontogenetic Habitat Use and Density of the Green Lizard (Lacerta bilineata) in Contrasted Landscapes in France and Italy

Rugiero¹,

Capula

Vittorio

et al. 2021

Conservation

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Habitat modification is a major factor in the decline of reptile populations. The degree of the decline has been shown to be directly related to the intensity of habitat modification. Farming practices and urbanization are just two of the factors involved indicating that the development of practices that minimize or cancel anthropogenic impacts is urgently needed to prevent further declines. This requires knowledge of population ecology of reptiles in both disturbed and pristine habitats. In this paper, we describe aspects of green lizard (Lacerta bilineata) population ecology in a forest–pasture relatively pristine mosaic habitat in central Italy and a fragmented habitat in western France. In Italy, habitat niche overlap was very high between males and females but very low between males and juveniles. For male and female abundances, general linear models showed that the adult abundances increased with the increase of Rubus bushes, whereas juvenile abundance increased with the increase of Spartium bushes. Contingency table analysis showed that juveniles were also much more frequently observed in grasslands than adults of either sexes. The observed ontogenetic structural niche pattern was likely due to intraspecific competition avoidance, competition interference, and cannibalism. The persistence of the same patterns across years demonstrates a temporal stability of the ontogenetic structural niche pattern. Over the length of the study period, population densities were stable in the Italian population, but densities were much higher by around five times in the hedgerow in the fragmented habitat in France. In the hedgerow, monthly lizard presence was uneven, with the greatest number of sightings in June and July. Overall, our study provided no support for the notion that lizard abundance/density should be lower in modified compared to unmodified habitats, and clearly revealed that a careful management of the hedgerows is crucial for the conservation of this lizard species in agro-forest ecosystems.

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Section: Ecological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…In the lacertid lizard Zootoca vivipara, population density impacts on numbers due to male aggression towards adult females during high densities [37]. This reduces survivorship and fecundity, leading to population decline [36]. Figure 6.…”

Section: Ecological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogenetic Habitat Use and Density of the Green Lizard (Lacerta bilineata) in Contrasted Landscapes in France and Italy

Rugiero¹,

Capula

Vittorio

et al. 2021

Conservation

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“…A similar mechanism was described for the North American lizard Phrynosoma douglasii , in which large amounts of pebbles (13% of items) were found. This was explained by the wind blowing the pebbles in motion, eliciting a feeding response [Lahti and Beck, ]. Grit found in the stomach content of our P. vitticeps , appeared to be degraded pieces of bone, which could have aided in their dietary calcium intake.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

The diet of free-roaming Australian Central Bearded Dragons (Pogona vitticeps)

Oonincx

Leeuwen²,

Hendriks

et al. 2015

Zoo Biology

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The central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) is one of the most popular pet lizards. However, little is known regarding their nutrient requirement, or their natural diet. Therefore, the stomach contents of 14 free-roaming P. vitticeps were determined by flushing. These stomach contents were described taxonomically, and analyzed for crude protein content as well as fatty acid content and composition. Most of the dry matter intake was in the form of animal material (61%) stemming from nine arthropod orders. The most abundant were alates of the termite Drepanotermes sp., accounting for 95% of the total number of prey items and more than half of the total dry matter (DM) intake. Plant material contributed 16% of the total DM intake. The diets were high in crude protein (41-50% DM) and the total fatty acid content was 14-27% of the DM intake. The main fatty acid was C18:1n9c (51-56% of total fatty acids), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3 and n6) comprised 6-8% of the total fat intake. Our data suggest that P. vitticeps is an opportunistic predator, which exploits the seasonal availability of prey. Based on our data and other studies, a diet consisting of several insect species, supplemented with leafy vegetables, rich in n3 FA's, would best resemble the expected natural diet of P. vitticeps.

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“…Such a scenario commonly occurs wherever different consumer stages live in the same habitat. Examples include copepods shifting their optimal phytoplankton prey size during successive stages (Gismervik 2005), spiders feeding on different sized nectar-feeding hymenopteran and dipteran species with increasing body size (Turner 1979), larval and adult diving beetles feeding on different dipteran and ephemeropteran pond species (Klecka and Boukal 2012), gobiid fish shifting from meiobenthic to macrobenthic prey during ontogeny (Jackson et al 2004), and juvenile and adult lizards feeding on differently sized ant species (Lahti and Beck 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogenetic diet shifts promote predator‐mediated coexistence

Wollrab

Roos

Diehl

2013

Ecology

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Ontogenetic diet shifts promote predator-mediated coexistenceWollrab, S.; de Roos, A.M.; Diehl, S. Published in: Ecology DOI:10.1890/12-1490.1 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):Wollrab, S., de Roos, A. M., & Diehl, S. (2013). Ontogenetic diet shifts promote predator-mediated coexistence. Ecology, 94(12), 2886-2897. DOI: 10.1890/12-1490.1 General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Abstract. It is widely believed that predation moderates interspecific competition and promotes prey diversity. Still, in models of two prey sharing a resource and a predator, predator-mediated coexistence occurs only over narrow ranges of resource productivity. These models have so far ignored the widespread feature of ontogenetic diet shifts in predators. Here, we theoretically explore the consequences of a diet shift from juvenile to adult predator stages for coexistence of two competing prey. We find that only very minor deviations from perfectly identical diets in juveniles and adults destroy the ''traditional'' mechanism of predatormediated coexistence, which requires an intrinsic trade-off between prey defendedness and competitive ability. Instead, predator population structure can create an ''emergent'' competition-predation trade-off between prey, where a bottleneck in one predator stage enhances predation on the superior competitor and relaxes predation on the inferior competitor, irrespective of the latter's intrinsic defendedness. Pronounced diet shifts therefore greatly enlarge the range of prey coexistence along a resource gradient. With diet shifts, however, coexistence usually occurs as one of two alternative states and, once lost, may not be easily restored.

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Ecology and Ontogenetic Variation of Diet in the Pigmy Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma Douglasii)

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Ontogenetic Habitat Use and Density of the Green Lizard (Lacerta bilineata) in Contrasted Landscapes in France and Italy

Ontogenetic Habitat Use and Density of the Green Lizard (Lacerta bilineata) in Contrasted Landscapes in France and Italy

The diet of free-roaming Australian Central Bearded Dragons (Pogona vitticeps)

Ontogenetic diet shifts promote predator‐mediated coexistence

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