Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats
Redonda is a small volcanic Caribbean island that is home to at least 4 endemic lizard species, including the Critically Endangered ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus). Black rats (Rattus rattus) and domestic goats (Capra hircus) were introduced to the island at some time after its discovery by Eu...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9290887 2023-05-15T18:05:28+02:00 Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats DONIHUE, Colin M. DALTRY, Jennifer C. CHALLENGER, Shanna HERREL, Anthony 2020-12-03 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9290887/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33166046 https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12500 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9290887/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33166046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12500 © 2020 The Authors. Integrative Zoology published by International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Integr Zool Original Articles Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12500 2022-07-31T01:56:25Z Redonda is a small volcanic Caribbean island that is home to at least 4 endemic lizard species, including the Critically Endangered ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus). Black rats (Rattus rattus) and domestic goats (Capra hircus) were introduced to the island at some time after its discovery by Europeans in the late 1500s. They had a devastating effect on the island, resulting in the loss of nearly all trees and most of the ground vegetation. Point count surveys of P. atratus in 2012 indicated low densities, and the invasive rats were observed hunting and preying on the lizards. Both populations of rats and goats were successfully removed in 2017 as part of an ecological restoration program, and native vegetation and invertebrate populations have increased rapidly since. Population surveys in 2017, 2018, and 2019 show the lizard population has increased by more than sixfold. In 2017, as rats and goats were being removed, we evaluated the morphology and escape behavior of this species and repeated these measurements 1 year later. We observed that P. atratus had become bolder, with a reduced flight distance. We also detected changes in limb morphology related to locomotion and suggest possible explanations that will need to be further investigated in the future. These results show how the removal of invasive species can rapidly affect lizard population recovery and behavior, potentially restoring island ecosystems to their pre‐human interference dynamics. Text Rattus rattus PubMed Central (PMC) Redonda ENVELOPE(-26.000,-26.000,-76.167,-76.167) Integrative Zoology 16 3 379 389 |
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Original Articles |
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Original Articles DONIHUE, Colin M. DALTRY, Jennifer C. CHALLENGER, Shanna HERREL, Anthony Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
topic_facet |
Original Articles |
description |
Redonda is a small volcanic Caribbean island that is home to at least 4 endemic lizard species, including the Critically Endangered ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus). Black rats (Rattus rattus) and domestic goats (Capra hircus) were introduced to the island at some time after its discovery by Europeans in the late 1500s. They had a devastating effect on the island, resulting in the loss of nearly all trees and most of the ground vegetation. Point count surveys of P. atratus in 2012 indicated low densities, and the invasive rats were observed hunting and preying on the lizards. Both populations of rats and goats were successfully removed in 2017 as part of an ecological restoration program, and native vegetation and invertebrate populations have increased rapidly since. Population surveys in 2017, 2018, and 2019 show the lizard population has increased by more than sixfold. In 2017, as rats and goats were being removed, we evaluated the morphology and escape behavior of this species and repeated these measurements 1 year later. We observed that P. atratus had become bolder, with a reduced flight distance. We also detected changes in limb morphology related to locomotion and suggest possible explanations that will need to be further investigated in the future. These results show how the removal of invasive species can rapidly affect lizard population recovery and behavior, potentially restoring island ecosystems to their pre‐human interference dynamics. |
format |
Text |
author |
DONIHUE, Colin M. DALTRY, Jennifer C. CHALLENGER, Shanna HERREL, Anthony |
author_facet |
DONIHUE, Colin M. DALTRY, Jennifer C. CHALLENGER, Shanna HERREL, Anthony |
author_sort |
DONIHUE, Colin M. |
title |
Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
title_short |
Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
title_full |
Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
title_fullStr |
Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
title_sort |
population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the critically endangered redonda ground lizard (pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9290887/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33166046 https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12500 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-26.000,-26.000,-76.167,-76.167) |
geographic |
Redonda |
geographic_facet |
Redonda |
genre |
Rattus rattus |
genre_facet |
Rattus rattus |
op_source |
Integr Zool |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9290887/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33166046 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12500 |
op_rights |
© 2020 The Authors. Integrative Zoology published by International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12500 |
container_title |
Integrative Zoology |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
379 |
op_container_end_page |
389 |
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1766176946783256576 |