Agonistic and courtship behaviour patterns in the skink Chalcides viridanus (Fam. Scincidae) from Tenerife |
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Authors: | Paula Sánchez-Hernández Martha P Ramírez-Pinilla Miguel Molina-Borja |
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Institution: | (1) Grupo de “Etolog?a y Ecolog?a del Comportamiento”, Depto. Biolog?a Animal, Fac. Biolog?a, Univ. La Laguna, Tenerife, Islas Canarias, Spain;(2) Grupo de Estudios en Biodiversidad, Escuela de Biolog?a, Univ. Industrial Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia; |
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Abstract: | There have been relatively few attempts to quantitatively describe behaviours in scincid lizards. Chalcides viridanus is a small body-sized skink endemic of Tenerife (Canary Islands). We describe and quantify 18 behaviour patterns (both social
and agonistic) of this species, some of which have not been described before for other scincids. Video recordings of male–male,
female–female, and male–female interactions were made under laboratory conditions, with controlled light–dark cycle and temperature.
We describe several agonistic and courtship behaviour patterns. Within the first context, we detected a new agonistic behaviour
for a scincid, “Snout to body”, that appeared at the beginning of agonistic sequences; it consisted of each animal placing
its snout in contact with the other individual’s lateral side of the body. The amplitude of head movement during “Head bobbing”
was lower than that described for many other lizard species. Agonistic behaviours were shown in intrasexual staged encounters
both within males and females. The comparison of behaviour patterns of both types of intrasexual encounters showed that females
were more active, exhibiting significantly higher frequencies of behaviour than males. Specifically, females showed the “Snout
to body” pattern more frequently than males. In male–female encounters we detected courtship and copulation patterns only
in April, when males performed “Bites” and “Snout to body” directed at females. |
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