Heat, safety or solitude? Using habitat selection experiments to identify a lizard's priorities

Downes, Sharon; Shine, Richard

doi:10.1006/anbe.1997.0705

Cited by 182 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…A useful goal for future studies would be to attempt to quantify the competitive abilities of fighting sea turtles and assess how their ability impacts the outcome of encounters. For example, it might be that competitive ability is related to body size or length of residency, as is the case in some other vertebrates (Downes & Shine 1998, Gray et al 2002. Our study can be considered a first step towards application of remote technology in order to specifically investigate possible causes of social interactions between sea turtles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

Schofield¹,

Katselidis²,

Pantis³

et al. 2007

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Aggressive behaviour between females of the same species is not widely documented, particularly in marine vertebrates. During a 3 yr in-water survey at the temperate loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta breeding area of Zakynthos, Greece, female-female interactions comprised 4% of all female loggerhead sighting events (n = 60 out of 1449 events). Male-female interactions comprised an additional 4% of sighting events, while 92% were of solitary females. The structure of interactions was analysed for 58 of these sighting events, each lasting an average of 3.4 min (SD ± 1) and comprising a total of 3.1 h observation time. We found that interactions involved ritualized escalation in behaviour from passive threat displays (e.g. head -tail circling) to aggressive combat (e.g. sparring). We suggest that circling individuals evaluate opponent size, sparring individuals test opponent strength, and that the positioning of the prehensile tail signals motivational intent to either escalate or abort. The presence of intruder females triggered a passive response in 100% of events involving basking and swimming turtles (n = 19); although residents resting on the seabed only responded on 69% of occasions (n = 27), their response was almost 4 times more likely to escalate to one of aggression. Our results suggest that certain sites may be preferentially sought after and defended by sea turtles.KEY WORDS: Caretta caretta · Sequential assessment · Evolutionary stable strategy · Territory · Marine · Vertebrate · Reptile Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 336: [267][268][269][270][271][272][273][274] 2007 plays of physical attributes (Ruby 1978), and only escalate into costly aggressive (agonistic) interaction if neither competitor retreats (Enquist & Leimar 1983). The outcome of escalated contests depends on a range of parameters such as competitive ability (resource holding power) and occupancy of a territory or hierarchical rank (prior residency effect). The residing individual is usually expected to win because, over time, the optimal sites/ranks are occupied by superior competitors (evolutionary stable strategies; Maynard Smith & Price 1973, Parker 1974. However, a range of factors associated with individual fitness and/or resource value may also affect competitor motivation and hence contest outcome (pay-off asymmetries such as contest duration and previous encounters; Kotiaho et al. 1999, Cressman et al. 2004.Although aggressive behaviour and contest escalation is widely documented for many vertebrates and invertebrates, direct observations of the aggressive behaviour of free-living animals in the marine environment is primarily limited to captive studies, usually of fish (Bisazza & Pilastro 1997). Most research on large free-living marine animals relies on the attachment of electronic devices, such as data-loggers and satellite transmitters, to elucidate animal behaviour (e.g. of fish, seabirds, seals, whales, dolphins and sea turtles) related to div...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

Schofield¹,

Katselidis²,

Pantis³

et al. 2007

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…In lizards, predator-prey interactions can be influenced by habitat selection (Bulova, 1994;Martín and López, 1995;Downes and Shine, 1998). However, as Smith and Ballinger (2001) suggested, few studies have actually estimated predation risk or differences in predation risk in different habitats (but see Brown and Ruby, 1977;Parker, 1994;Smith, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Diego-Rasilla¹

2003

Behavioural Processes

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“…One important characteristic involves suitable retreat sites as refuges (Heatwole, 1966;Jackson, 1988). The choice of refuge is correlated with certain priorities, such as predator avoidance, and social interactions (Schlesinger & Shine, 1994;Downes & Shine, 1998). Additionally, homing behaviour implies recognition of a particular site (Heatwole, 1977), and it has been also suggested that fitness of individuals is higher in their preferred microhabitat (Martin, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Winter refuge characteristics of Spiny-tailed iguanas, Ctenosaura hemilopha, in Baja California Sur, Mexico

Blázquez¹,

Rodríguez‐Estrella²

2001

Journal of Arid Environments

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Heat, safety or solitude? Using habitat selection experiments to identify a lizard's priorities

Cited by 182 publications

References 32 publications

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

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

Winter refuge characteristics of Spiny-tailed iguanas, Ctenosaura hemilopha, in Baja California Sur, Mexico

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Heat, safety or solitude? Using habitat selection experiments to identify a lizard's priorities

Cited by 182 publications

References 32 publications

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

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

Winter refuge characteristics of Spiny-tailed iguanas, Ctenosaura hemilopha, in Baja California Sur, Mexico

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Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles

Femalefemale aggression: structure of interaction and outcome in loggerhead sea turtles