Context-Dependent Social Behavior In Gold Dust Day Geckos (Phelsuma Laticauda)

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dc.contributor.advisorWright, Amber
dc.contributor.authorHarding, Madelyne
dc.contributor.departmentOceanography
dc.contributor.departmentGlobal Environmental Science
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-15T00:57:31Z
dc.date.available2023-12-15T00:57:31Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.description.courseOCN 499 - Undergraduate Thesis
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/107621
dc.publisher.placeHonolulu
dc.subjectBORIS
dc.subjectday gecko
dc.subjectethogram
dc.subjectinteractions
dc.subjectPhelsuma Laticauda
dc.subjectsocial behavior
dc.subjectt-test
dc.titleContext-Dependent Social Behavior In Gold Dust Day Geckos (Phelsuma Laticauda)
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractNon-avian reptiles can exhibit complex social behaviors, but they are vastly understudied relative to birds and mammals. Social behaviors relay information between individuals about each other and are important for mating, territory, predator altering, and the individual’s overall fitness. The gold dust day gecko was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the 1970’s. Little is known about their reproductive/social behavior, in their native or introduced range, and how this may affect their ability to thrive as an invasive species. Their introduction provides an opportunity to study their social behaviors. I used focal observations of lizards in experimental enclosures to develop an ethogram and determine whether the types and frequencies of behaviors varies during intraspecific pairwise interactions depending on the sexes of the interactors. Out of an initial set of 141 videos focused on a single lizard, the most common interaction observed was between females and males (n = 24 of videos), while only 4 included male-male interactions (M-M) and only 1 was of a female-female interaction. Despite having few observations, I consistently observed that in M-M interactions one individual was the aggressor, and this did not depend on the size of the individuals interacting. Most F-M and all M-M interactions occurred during the summer. In F-M interactions I identified behaviors that were exhibited more by one sex. Males performed bodyglide, parallel stance, head bob, and stalked more while females did tailwag and moved more. The fact that behavioral frequencies differ among the sexes when interacting suggests that these behaviors may play an important role in courtship. Future studies that address the potential role for these behaviors in individual identification or assessment of individual quality are warranted, and additional effort is needed to observe M-M and F-F interactions.
dcterms.extent31
dcterms.languageEnglish
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.rightsHolderHarding, Madelyne
dcterms.typePDF

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