Insights from foraging behavior on competitive interactions in introduced lizards in Hawai‘i
Date
2022
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Abstract
Foraging behaviors have different affects on multiple aspects of an animal’s ecology. Thefitness of an animal depends heavily on the body condition of said animal, and foraging has a
direct affect on body condition. Foraging behaviors also dictate the types of prey predatory
animals hunt, and where they hunt for this prey, both of which can drive competition for food.
Exploitation competition could be a mechanism of competition being driven by foraging
behaviors. Using focal animal sampling, we compared different aspects of foraging behavior on
three species of invasive diurnal lizards in Hawai’i that may be competing for food: Anolis
sagrei, Anolis carolinensis, and Phelsuma laticauda. Lizards were housed in single-species
populations in experimental enclosures with similar prey and habitat availability. We observed
differences in the heights at which Anolis sagrei and Phelsuma laticauda would forage, and
Anolis carolinensis overlapped with both species. Anolis sagrei and Anolis carolinensis used the
ground to forage, whereas Phelsuma laticauda was rarely seen using the ground to forage and
used smooth substrates more than the other two species. Both Anolis species had similar long
distances traveled to a prey item, whereas Phelsuma laticauda rarely traveled long distances to
attempt to capture prey. There was overlap between all three species in the prey taxa they would
hunt, which is supported by other work done on Anolis. Because of overlap in foraging behavior
seen among the species, exploitation competition could be occurring and help explain why
Anolis carolinensis has declined in abundance on O’ahu since the introduction of the other two
species.
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Ecology, Zoology, Anolis, Behavior, Foraging, Phelsuma, Resource partitioning
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42 pages
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