Download or read book Integrating Consistent Among individual Differences in Behavior and Parasite Load in a Wild Population of Sleepy Lizards Tiliqua Rugosa written by Eric Matthew Payne and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Broadly, this work attempts to integrate host personality (i.e., consistent individual differences in behavior) and parasitism using a wild population of sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) and their tick parasites. To that end, Chapter 1 first studies personality in sleepy lizards over a six-year period. Specifically, we evaluated the factors that influenced lizard aggression and boldness scores, as well as determined whether these behaviors constituted personality (via quantifying their repeatability). We found a positive relationship between tick counts and lizard aggression and boldness. Both of these behaviors were also repeatable (i.e., differed consistently among individuals) for males and females through long periods, even across years. Next, given that we know that individuals of many species often differ in their parasite loads and consistently differ in their behavior, Chapter 2 uses nine years of tick count data to investigate whether sleepy lizards differed consistently in their parasitism. We found that lizards did indeed differ, such that some individuals persistently had more ticks while others had fewer. These consistent differences endured both within and across years. Lizard aggression and boldness, intriguingly, were not strongly associated with lizard average tick counts. Chapter 3 then examines more explicitly the connections between lizard personality and infection using an experimental infestation of lizards. We correlated pre-treatment behavior with the success of the infestation (attachment probability), and we assessed the effect of infestation on behavior post-treatment. Interestingly, lizard aggression and boldness interactively related to attachment probability: Increasing boldness was associated with reduced infestation success for less aggressive lizards, but greater infestation for more aggressive lizards. Upon infestation, lizards became bolder, but aggression did not change. These results therefore present the possibility of host behavior-parasite feedbacks that depend on multiple behaviors (i.e., the direction of the feedback depends on both aggression and boldness). Lastly, using piecewise structural equation modeling, Chapter 4 tests how lizard personality related to tick exposure and acquisition via intermediary pathways. For example, lizards predominantly acquire ticks through shared refuge use (which must occur with a time lag), so we considered how aggression and boldness affected refuge use, and then how refuge use affected tick counts. We found, surprisingly, that aggression and boldness did not affect tick counts either directly or through intermediary pathways. However, lizard behaviors still mattered. Tick acquisition, for instance, strongly increased with lizards' time-lagged refuge sharing, which itself increased with lizards' social network interactivity. Together, these chapters present a few key findings: 1) both behavior and parasitism can differ consistently among individuals (e.g., individuals may exhibit both persistently high aggression and parasite loads); 2) behavior and parasites obviously interconnect, but the feedbacks between behavior and parasitism may involve multiple distinct behaviors, the combination of which may affect the direction of the parasite-behavior feedback; and 3) though host behavior can strongly affect parasite transmission, only certain behaviors may matter, and some of these behaviors may act indirectly. Considering direct and indirect links among multiple behaviors and parasites, as well as whether such traits differ consistently among individuals in wild conditions, may greatly enhance our understanding of host-parasite ecology.
Download or read book Parasites of Sleepy Lizards Tiliqua Rugosa Sampled Across an Ecological Gradient at Bundey Bore Station South Australia written by Gerrut Norval and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parasites make up a large part of the world's biodiversity and are important components of ecosystems because they influence the fitness of their hosts, and therefore intraspecific and interspecific interactions. Historically, parasites have often been overlooked in ecological studies, so there are gaps in our understanding of their natural history, and even fundamental information, such as their geographic distribution, is often poorly understood. The distribution of parasites is not consistent throughout their distribution range. Variations in limiting factors, such as precipitation, in an area can influence plant communities in such a way that it creates ecological gradients. Species that can inhabit a variety of habitat types often occur throughout such an ecological gradient. However, the parasites that infect them may differ over the ecological gradient due to being more habitat specific or requiring additional hosts that are habitat specific. -- In this thesis, I explored parasite community variations in a sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) population inhabiting an area with a precipitation-induced ecological gradient, and whether different plant communities from natural vegetation to those more affected by farming can influence these parasite communities. This work is a continuation of a long-established area of exploration of sleepy lizards and their parasites set up by the late Prof. C. Michael Bull who built upon the earlier work by Michael Smyth. -- Through the dissection of road kills I confirmed the gastrointestinal helminths that infect lizards in the study site. I caught lizards along established transects in the study site and examined them for the presence of ectoparasites. I also collected blood and faecal samples that were subsequently examined microscopically to determine the prevalence of the various endoparasites in the sleepy lizard population. -- Vegetation data were collected from sample plots along two transects that span both disturbed and rehabilitated areas and are therefore representative of the vegetation of the study site. The floristic data was analysed to determine the various plant communities. Based on the identified plant communities, the habitats along the two transects were assigned to different habitat categories. -- The geographic distribution of the various identified ecto- and endoparasites were then mapped out within the study site. Sub-samples of the data collected along the two transects used for the vegetation studies were used to identify associations between different parasite species and various habitat categories. -- This work has furthered our knowledge on associations between the parasite community of sleepy lizards and different habitats. The variations in the parasite community were mainly driven by differences in the prevalence of ixodid tick species as a result of their association with specific habitat categories. Precipitation as well as disturbances to the habitat influenced the distribution of these ectoparasites, which influences the degree of overlap in their parapatric distribution. The information about the prevalence of the various parasites across the ecological gradient form a basis for future studies, which should focus on filling the gaps in our understanding of the life cycles the parasites, and identifying the ecological roles they play.
Download or read book Lizard Social Behavior written by Stanley F. Fox and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2003-02-25 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction: The evolutionary study of social behavior and the role of lizards as model organisms / Stanley F. Fox, J. Kelly McCoy and Troy A. Baird -- Variation among individuals. Introduction / Peter Marler. Intra- and intersexual variation in social behavior : effects of ontogeny, phenotype, resources, and season / Troy A. Baird, Dusti K. Timanus and Chris L. Sloan. Evolution and maintenance of social status-signaling badges : experimental manipulations in lizards / Martin J. Whiting, Kenneth A. Nagy and Philip W. Bateman. Ecological and social contexts for the evolution of alternative mating strategies / Kelly R. Zamudio and Barry Sinervo. Social behavior and antipredatory defense in lizards / William E. Cooper, Jr. -- Variation among populations. Introduction / Gordon H. Orians.
Download or read book Personality and Behavioural Syndromes in Sleepy Lizards Tiliqua Rugosa written by Jana Kate Bradley and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pair Fidelity in the Australian Sleepy Lizard Tiliqua Rugosa written by Radika Joy Michniewicz and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Helminth Parasites in Sleepy Lizards tiliqua Rugosa written by Pradip Gyawali and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Human Disturbance and Stride Frequency in the Sleepy Lizard Tiliqua Rugosa written by Gregory Dale Kerr and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Space Utilisation and Activity Patterns in the Sleepy Lizard Tiliqua Rugosa written by Gregory Dale Kerr and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Movement Patterns in the Monogamous Sleepy Lizard Tiliqua Rugosa written by Gregory Dale Kerr and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Influence of Parasites on the Retention of Long term Partnerships in the Australian Sleepy Lizard Tiliqua Rugosa written by C. Michael Bull and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Animal Social Networks written by Dr. Jens Krause and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scientific study of networks - computer, social, and biological - has received an enormous amount of interest in recent years. However, the network approach has been applied to the field of animal behaviour relatively late compared to many other biological disciplines. Understanding social network structure is of great importance for biologists since the structural characteristics of any network will affect its constituent members and influence a range of diverse behaviours. These include finding and choosing a sexual partner, developing and maintaining cooperative relationships, and engaging in foraging and anti-predator behavior. This novel text provides an overview of the insights that network analysis has provided into major biological processes, and how it has enhanced our understanding of the social organisation of several important taxonomic groups. It brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines with the aim of providing both an overview of the power of the network approach for understanding patterns and process in animal populations, as well as outlining how current methodological constraints and challenges can be overcome. Animal Social Networks is principally aimed at graduate level students and researchers in the fields of ecology, zoology, animal behaviour, and evolutionary biology but will also be of interest to social scientists.
Download or read book The Connections Between Ecology and Infectious Disease written by Christon J. Hurst and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes current advances in our understanding of how infectious disease represents an ecological interaction between a pathogenic microorganism and the host species in which that microbe causes illness. The contributing authors explain that pathogenic microorganisms often also have broader ecological connections, which can include a natural environmental presence; possible transmission by vehicles such as air, water, and food; and interactions with other host species, including vectors for which the microbe either may or may not be pathogenic. This field of science has been dubbed disease ecology, and the chapters that examine it have been grouped into three sections. The first section introduces both the role of biological community interactions and the impact of biodiversity on infectious disease. In turn, the second section considers those diseases directly affecting humans, with a focus on waterborne and foodborne illnesses, while also examining the critical aspect of microbial biofilms. Lastly, the third section presents the ecology of infectious diseases from the perspective of their impact on mammalian livestock and wildlife as well as on humans. Given its breadth of coverage, the volume offers a valuable resource for microbial ecologists and biomedical scientists alike.
Download or read book Reptiles and Amphibians written by Harold G. Cogger and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reptiles and amphibians live in all parts of the world, under the ground, on land, in water and high in habits of these remarkable creatures.
Download or read book Behavior of Lizards written by Vincent Bels and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-02-06 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key features: Presents a contemporary snapshot of the mechanisms underlying the evolution and adaptation of behavior Explores how genetics, epigenetics, development, and environment shape behavior Discusses a broad range of behavioral repertoires and responses, including those related to thermoregulatory, foraging, predatory, displaying, social and escape strategies. Examines physiological and sensory mechanisms Covers the effects of various aspects of global change on behavior, with chapters that focus on the impacts of climate change on hydroregulatory behavior and behavioral responses to the effects of habitat alteration resulting from human-mediated change and colonization by invasive species. Lizards serve as focal organisms for many of biological questions related to evolution, ecology, physiology, and morphology. They are studied at multiple spatial and temporal scales, from the individual to the community level. This book, authored by expert contributors from around the world, explores behaviors underlying the evolution and adaptation of these organisms. It covers conceptual, empirical, and methodological approaches to the understanding of the role that natural and sexual selection play in molding the behavioral traits of lizards. This thorough, illustrated reference should stimulate discussion of the conceptual and methodological approaches for studying the behavioral traits of these fascinating and highly diverse vertebrates.
Download or read book The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles written by J. Sean Doody and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2021-06 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revealing the secrets of reptilian social relationships through original quantitative research, field studies, laboratory experiments, and careful analysis of the literature, The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles elevates these fascinating animals to key players in the science of behavioral ecology.
Download or read book Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon written by Sir James Emerson Tennent and published by . This book was released on 1861 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rapidly Evolving Genes and Genetic Systems written by Rama S. Singh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-28 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A range of theories on the rates of evolution-from static to gradual to punctuated to quantum-have been developed, mostly by comparing morphological changes over geological timescales as described in the fossil record.
