Costs of reproduction in lizards: escape tactics and susceptibility to predation
Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Increased basking and reduced agility in gravid female southern water skinks (Eulamprus tympanum) suggest that they will be more vulnerable to predators. However, gravid females shift their anti-predator tactics towards crypsis, by allowing potential predators (such as a human observer) to approach more closely than do males and non-gravid females. Gravid females were taken no more frequently than were non-gravid females or males when exposed to two types of natural predators, birds (kookaburra, Dacelo gigas) or snakes (common blacksnakes, Pseudechis porphyriacus) in field enclosures. Both these results suggest that the vulnerability of potential prey in this system is determined by the predator's probability of detecting a potential prey item, not its probability of capturing the prey item after detection. Hence, laboratory-based measures of performance demonstrating reduced escape speed may sometimes have little relevance to actual fitness under field conditions, if the probability that an animal will be taken by a predator depends primarily on whether or not it is seen, rather than on how quickly it can escape.
Journal
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Publication Name
N/A
Volume
31
ISBN/ISSN
1432-0762
Edition
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Issue
1
Pages Count
9
Location
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Publisher
Springer
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EISSN
N/A
DOI
10.1007/BF00167812