Meeting Abstract
Understanding social organization in cryptically social animals is crucial for questions in behavioral ecology. Association with conspecifics may be based on characteristics including sex, personality, refugia location, and genetic relatedness. Cohorts may influence mate choice, foraging, predator avoidance, and disease transmission. I evaluate the effect of genetic relatedness and personality on the social structure of a group of Spiny-Tailed Iguanas, Ctenosaura similis, at Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica. Lizard physical proximity interactions were recorded via focal sampling to build the association network of this group of animals. Network matrices were constructed of pairwise relatedness between iguanas. I use multiple regression quadratic assignment procedures (MRQAP) to model the influence of genetic relatedness on the structure of association networks. Analyses show no effect of kinship on organization patterns, which, while not uncommon in reptiles, is inconsistent with many socio-ecological models. Personalities or behavioral syndromes in Ctenosaura similis were determined running field assays of personality (flight initiation distance, novel object, and open-field testing). I present preliminary results from these assays. I also outline how the Encounternet wireless system will be used to gather future network data for these studies. This is the first large-scale study to look at behavioral type and social network structure in an egg laying, neotropical lizard. Because other Ctenosaura species are listed on the IUCN “Red List” as Near Threatened to Critically Endangered, analysis about this “proxy species” can provide a model for understanding what social structure characteristics may support a self-perpetuating population of endangered iguanas.
