Change your diet or die: predator-induced shifts in insectivorous lizard feeding ecology |
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Authors: | Dror Hawlena Valentín Pérez-Mellado |
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Affiliation: | (1) Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel;(2) Present address: School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 370 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA;(3) Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Salamanca, 37071 Salamanca, Spain |
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Abstract: | Animal feeding ecology and diet are influenced by the fear of predation. While the mechanistic bases for such changes are well understood, technical difficulties often prevent testing how these mechanisms interact to affect a mesopredator’s diet in natural environments. Here, we compared the insectivorous lizard Acanthodactylus beershebensis’ feeding ecology and diet between high- and low-risk environments, using focal observations, intensive trapping effort and fecal pellet analysis. To create spatial variation in predation risk, we planted “artificial trees” in a scrubland habitat that lacks natural perches, allowing avian predators to hunt for lizards in patches that were previously unavailable to them. Lizards in elevated-risk environments became less mobile but did not change their microhabitat use or temporal activity. These lizards changed their diet, consuming smaller prey and less plant material. We suggest that diet shifts were mainly because lizards from risky environments consumed prey items that required shorter handling time. |
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Keywords: | Acanthodactylus beershebensis Crossover hypothesis Foraging Handling time Mobility |
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