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Persistence of individually distinctive display patterns in fatigued side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana)

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Abstract

Iguanian lizards perform conspicuous species-typical push-up displays, which are used in territory advertisement, threat, and courtship contexts. Subtle individually distinctive differences in push-up characteristics have been suggested to play a role in the recognition of social partners. However, if the structure of push-ups is responsive to changing physiological states then their capacity to promote recognition may be limited. The current study evaluated whether the push-ups performed while in an experimentally imposed state of fatigue by male side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana), retain the individually distinctive characteristics apparent in rested lizards. We found repeatable among-individual differences in the duration and the relative height of push-up components. Repeatability values did not change consistently between the rested and fatigued conditions, nor when both conditions were pooled, indicating that these push-up characteristics do not change with fatigue. Similarly, discriminant functions that were generated using push-ups from one state assigned push-ups performed in an alternate state to the correct individuals. Furthermore, when analyzed independently of individual identity, the values of display parameters examined in the current study did not change significantly between states, and discriminant function analysis could not reliably classify push-ups to the correct state. Taken together the results show that individually distinctive push-up characteristics are robust to effects of fatigue, consistent with their suggested role in social recognition. In the future, video playback experiments can test whether lizards utilize the signature-like characteristics of push-ups to discriminate among individuals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Barry Sinervo for providing access to subjects and facilities to conduct this project, Don Miles for exercising the lizards and Jeff Schank for programming the NIH Image tracking macro. The Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior at Indiana University supported Y.B. with a graduate fellowship and J.R.A. with an REU fellowship. We thank Butch Brodie, Emília Martins, Terry Ord, Bill Rowland and Barry Sinervo for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We are grateful to three anonymous referees for suggesting valuable improvements to this paper. This work was approved by the institutional animal care and use committee of Indiana University, Bloomington.

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  1. Biology Department and the Center for Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, 1001 East 3rd St., Bloomington, IN 47405–3700, USA

    Yoni Brandt

  2. University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0, USA

    J. Ryan Allen

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  1. Yoni Brandt
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Correspondence to Yoni Brandt.

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Communicated by T. Czeschlik

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Brandt, Y., Allen, J.R. Persistence of individually distinctive display patterns in fatigued side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 257–265 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0701-5

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