Meeting Abstract

95.5  Sunday, Jan. 6  Dewlap displays and predation risk in green anole lizards HENNINGSEN, J.P.*; HUSAK, J.F.; IRSCHICK, D.J.; University of Massachusetts Amherst; University of St. Thomas; University of Massachusetts Amherst justinh@bio.umass.edu

In some animals, signals are consistently correlated with another trait and are thus considered reliable. Theory predicts that signal reliability is maintained via costs imposed upon the signaler. One such cost may be increased risk of predation. Male green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis) use the dewlap as a reliable signal of maximum bite force capacity. However, the costs that maintain signal reliability in dewlaps are unknown. We tested whether dewlap displays increase predation risk by disabling dewlap displays in a sample of adult male green anoles. We compared the recapture rates of these males against animals given a sham treatment and found that recapture rates did not differ between the groups. We also used clay models to test how dewlaps and their color profile affected predation attempts. We found that models with naturally colored dewlaps (pink with UV reflectance) were struck by predators more often than models with green dewlaps and models with no dewlaps. We explore hypotheses that could explain the apparent contradictory evidence between sedentary models and free living animals.