Territory acquisition in lizards: III. Competing for space

• Published in: Animal behaviour Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 679 - 693
• Main Authors: Stamps, J.A., Krishnan, V.V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kent Elsevier Ltd 1995; Elsevier; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Ltd
• Subjects: Amphibia and reptilia; Animal behavior; Animal ethology; Anolis aeneus; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Reptiles & amphibians; Vertebrata; California; United States; North America; America; Territory; Intraspecific relation; Young animal; Vertebrata; Sauria; Territorial behavior; Spatial distribution; Social dominance; Social interaction; Conflict; Familiarity strangeness; Intraspecific competition; Reptilia; Field study; Agonistic behavior
• ISSN: 0003-3472; 1095-8282
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-3472(95)80201-0

Juvenile Anolis aeneus lizards were released into patches of microhabitat in the field, and their social interactions and space use recorded throughout the settlement period. Two hypotheses about the role of social interactions in space acquisition were tested: (1) settlers win space by winning contests and (2) settlers win space by persistence. Results supported the second hypothesis. Juveniles did not acquire the areas in which they won interactions with opponents, and in the vast majority of dyads, both the winner and the loser subsequently avoided the location of their first encounter with one another. A second set of analyses focused on ‘space transfers’, in which one settler gained possession of space that had been used by its opponent before they began to interact with one another. Subordinates were as successful as dominants at taking space from their opponent, and space transfers by dominants and subordinates were virtually identical with respect to estimates of the costs and benefits of space acquisition. Dominants acquired space by repeatedly chasing subordinates, and the amount of space that transferred from subordinate to dominant was positively related to the rate at which the dominant attacked the subordinate. Conversely, subordinates took space by persisting in the face of repeated attacks by dominants, and the amount of space taken by a subordinate was inversely related to the rate at which the subordinate was attacked by the dominant. Overall, dyads with space transfers interacted at higher rates for a longer period of time than dyads without transfers, and dyads with transfers were more likely to end up with overlapping activity areas than were dyads that resolved their disputes without taking space from one another. Two factors had independent effects on the probability that a dyad would engage in a transfer: (1) spatial overlap when the pair first encountered one another and (2) contender pressure in the patch of territorial habitat.