Experimental Evidence That High Population Frequencies of Lizard Tail Autotomy Indicate Inefficient Predation

Medel, Rodrigo; Fox, Stanley F.; Jiménez, Jaime E.; Jaksić, Fabián M.

doi:10.2307/3565531

Cited by 84 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Thus, I noted the presence of broken or regenerated tails in the lizards. However, tail break frequencies indicate predator efficiency as well as frequency of predation attempts (Schoener, 1979;Jacksic and Greene, 1984;Medel et al, 1988). An alternative approach to evaluate the effect of predation consists of recording predatory attacks on soft replicas of the prey species of interest (Brodie, 1993;Brodie and Janzen, 1995;Castilla and Labra, 1998).…”

Section: Subjects and Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of predation pressure on the escape behaviour of Podarcis muralis lizards

Diego-Rasilla¹

2003

Behavioural Processes

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Section: Subjects and Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of predation pressure on the escape behaviour of Podarcis muralis lizards

Diego-Rasilla¹

2003

Behavioural Processes

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“…Low frequencies of sublethal damage can be problematic because they can result from either low or very high frequencies of lethal encounters (Schoener 1979, Medel et al 1988, Leighton 2002. However, in longlived species, older age-classes inhabiting environments restrictive to predators are unlikely to exhibit a complete absence of repair if predators pose at least some threat to the population.…”

Section: Sublethal Repairmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic heterogeneity in salt marshes of the northern Gulf of Mexico

Moody

Aronson²

2007

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Predator-prey interactions in salt-marsh ecosystems are driven primarily by interactions among tidal dynamics, local physiography, and macrophyte density. Distinct seaward-to-landward predation gradients have been described for the continuous and expansive meadows of Spartina alterniflora on the Atlantic coast of the United States. In the northern Gulf of Mexico, Juncus roemerianus dominates and Spartina is generally limited to fringing bands or disjunct patches in low-lying areas. It is not known whether predation regimes vary consistently among subhabitats in these disjunct marshes. We investigated whether small-scale variations in topography and habitat structure produce persistently distinguishable predation regimes among marsh patches in coastal Alabama. Each of our study sites was representative of the principal subhabitats found within continuous Spartina meadows: vegetation bordering open water, tidal creeks within the marsh, and interior subhabitat. We assessed a strong trophic interaction in these subhabitats: predation pressure exerted by the blue crab Callinectes sapidus on the periwinkle Littoraria irrorata. The distribution of sublethal repairs in Littoraria shells demonstrated that attacks by Callinectes were randomly inflicted, irrespective of attack frequency. The occurrence of sublethal shell repair was positively related to the frequency of predatory attacks on experimentally tethered snails, the abundance of crabs, and the degree of antipredatory architectural defense in the snail shells. Among-site differences in shell repair and architectural defense were related to topography and habitat structure, and these differences persisted over multiple seasons and years. Physical variations thus maintain strong, persistent predation regimes among subhabitats in disjunct Spartina marshes.

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“…The field data on the frequency of snails with a regenerated foot demonstrate both high efficiency of snail autotomy and high intensity of snake predation on the snails in the wild. Although the frequency of individuals with regenerated body parts also depends on the mortality rate of prey in the face of predation and is not always a reliable indicator of predation intensity [35,36], this is not the case because of the binary comparison between populations with and without the snake predator.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cost of autotomy drives ontogenetic switching of anti-predator mechanisms under developmental constraints in a land snail

Hoso

2012

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Autotomy of body parts offers various prey animals immediate benefits of survival in compensation for considerable costs. I found that a land snail Satsuma caliginosa of populations coexisting with a snaileating snake Pareas iwasakii survived the snake predation by autotomizing its foot, whereas those out of the snake range rarely survived. Regeneration of a lost foot completed in a few weeks but imposed a delay of shell growth. Imprints of autotomy were found in greater than 10 per cent of S. caliginosa in the snake range but in only less than 1 per cent out of it, simultaneously demonstrating intense predation by the snakes and high efficiency of autotomy for surviving snake predation in the wild. However, in experiments, mature S. caliginosa performed autotomy less frequently. Instead of the costly autotomy, they can use defensive denticles on the inside of their shell apertures. Owing to the constraints from the additive growth of shells, most pulmonate snails can produce these denticles only when they have fully grown up. Thus, this developmental constraint limits the availability of the modified aperture, resulting in ontogenetic switching of the alternative defences. This study illustrates how costs of adaptation operate in the evolution of life-history strategies under developmental constraints

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Experimental Evidence That High Population Frequencies of Lizard Tail Autotomy Indicate Inefficient Predation

Cited by 84 publications

References 27 publications

Influence of predation pressure on the escape behaviour of Podarcis muralis lizards

Influence of predation pressure on the escape behaviour of Podarcis muralis lizards

Trophic heterogeneity in salt marshes of the northern Gulf of Mexico

Cost of autotomy drives ontogenetic switching of anti-predator mechanisms under developmental constraints in a land snail

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