Meeting Abstract
Male brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) are a lizard native to Cuba and the Bahamas which defend small territories from other males. Aggressive displays include behaviors such as head bobs, push-ups, and dewlap flashes. These aggressive displays, in addition to direct attacks, are attempts by the male lizards to secure and defend their territories. An earlier study in our lab showed population differences in aggression of wild-caught adult male brown anoles from four Bahamian islands: Exuma, Eluthra, San Salvador, and North Andros. This study extends that work to lab-reared male offspring of those same four populations to determine whether population differences in aggression persist despite a common-garden rearing environment. A pilot study using size-paired offspring from only Exuma and Eluthera populations suggested that developmental environment and immediate circumstances may have a stronger influence on aggression than parentage. Males of at least 15 months of age were size-matched with another member of their population, visually isolated from other lizards for one week, and then tested. The paired lizards were tethered and placed in a novel enclosure where they could see each other for 30 minutes. Video recordings of these encounters scored based on aggressive displays. Focal males were also tested individually, using a mirror as a stimulus, to determine the impact that the presence of another lizard may have on aggressive behavior. Each lizard was tested twice in both manners to measure repeatability of aggression in both settings. These data indicate that aggression in male brown anoles is influenced by both the environment in which they are raised as well as their immediate environment rather than by parentage.
