Meeting Abstract

P3.116  Thursday, Jan. 6  Homing Ability and Navigation in Chuckwallas WAKELING, S.W.*; HAGERTY, B.E. ; SANDMEIER, F.; TRACY, C.R.; Univ. of Nevada, Reno ; Univ. of Nevada, Reno; Univ. of Nevada, Reno; Univ. of Nevada, Reno wakeling.stephanie@gmail.com

Animal dispersal is an important process contributing to gene flow among populations. The distance at which individuals can return to their home range, or home territory, after being displaced may indicate familiarity with the areas surrounding an animal’s home, and provide a measure of the extent of normal movements made by individuals. Preliminary evidence with chuckwallas (Sauromalus ater) suggested that males may disperse greater distances than do females. Thus, we used a homing experiment to assess the differential homing abilities of female and male chuckwallas in a Southern Nevada population. Male and female chuckwallas were displaced from their home territories, and tracked with telemetry during the activity season. Most lizards appeared unable to find their way home even when displaced modest distances of 200 and 400 meters, and we found no significant differences between male and female lizards in their ability to find their way home. Those chuckwallas that did return home appeared to do so only when apparently random movements after displacement brought these lizards within sight of their home. This suggests that vision is the most important navigational cue employed by chuckwallas in their normal movements including movements to find their way back to their territories. Our homing experiment suggests that chuckwallas do not normally stray far from home territories, and that they navigate in their natural movements using visual cues.