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1 December 2009 Daily Activity Budgets for Neonate and Adult Sceloporus jarrovii and Adult Sceloporus virgatus in Southeastern Arizona
Jessa L. Watters
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Abstract

Predators must balance their time between foraging (searching for and capturing food) and other necessary behaviors, such as courtship, mating, territoriality, and predator avoidance. The purpose of this study was to determine how much time two lizard species (Sceloporus jarrovii and Sceloporus virgatus) spent in foraging, aggressive, general maintenance, and basking behaviors. Two age classes of S. jarrovii were examined in this study, neonate and adult, whereas only adults of S. virgatus were studied. Lizards were observed for 30-min intervals from late May through July in 2004 and 2005 at two research sites in southeastern Arizona. Neonatal S. jarrovii spent more time running and foraging during observational intervals than did adults of either species, which may be a result of their higher metabolic needs. Adult S. virgatus spent more time doing head bobs than did either age class of S. jarrovii, possibly explained by the notion that this behavior is used for both aggression and courtship and both were occurring for S. virgatus during the study. In contrast, adult S. jarrovii spent little time in head bobs, because courtship and mating in this species were not occurring during the time of the study. Very little time was spent actively foraging by any subject lizard group, because the majority of time was spent immobile, likely basking or passively searching for prey. Differential amounts of time spent in the various measured behaviors can be explained by the reproductive or developmental state of the lizards involved.

Jessa L. Watters "Daily Activity Budgets for Neonate and Adult Sceloporus jarrovii and Adult Sceloporus virgatus in Southeastern Arizona," Journal of Herpetology 43(4), 665-675, (1 December 2009). https://doi.org/10.1670/08-124.1
Accepted: 1 February 2009; Published: 1 December 2009
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