Shelter availability and use by Mexican Beaded Lizards in a tropical dry forest
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC 202
Start Date
17-5-2012
End Date
17-5-2012
Abstract
We investigated factors affecting shelter use by the Mexican Beaded Lizard, Heloderma horridum in a tropical dry forest of costal Jalisco, Mexico. Our study aimed to understand 1) how shelter (burrow) availability varies over the landscape, 2) if beaded lizards choose to inhabit areas that have a high frequency of potential burrows, and 3) how the extreme seasonality of a tropical dry forest might influence microhabitat selection. We hypothesized that there would be a higher frequency of potential shelters in areas that had known beaded lizard use. To test our hypothesis, we ran transects near 10 known burrow sites (5 wet season and 5 dry season) and 5 areas with no known Heloderma horridum activity, recording all potential burrows within a meter of each transect line. We found that beaded lizards tended to choose burrows with sediment roofs and floors, with the remaining potential shelters having tree root or rock components as well. Significantly more potential burrows were found in areas of known use (3.0 shelters/80m transect) than in non-site areas (1.4 shelters/80m transect). A chi-squared analysis showed that beaded lizards also prefer burrows with a west-facing entrance, most notably for dry season sites. Our results suggest that shelters (burrows) may be a limiting habitat feature for beaded lizards and that these lizards are selective in their choice of shelter sites, a result that may also apply to other species that inhabit tropical dry forests.
Recommended Citation
Rayburn, Micah; Watson, Haley; and Butterfield, Taggert, "Shelter availability and use by Mexican Beaded Lizards in a tropical dry forest" (2012). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 130.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2012/oralpresentations/130
Additional Mentoring Department
Biological Sciences
Additional Mentoring Department
Geological Sciences
Shelter availability and use by Mexican Beaded Lizards in a tropical dry forest
SURC 202
We investigated factors affecting shelter use by the Mexican Beaded Lizard, Heloderma horridum in a tropical dry forest of costal Jalisco, Mexico. Our study aimed to understand 1) how shelter (burrow) availability varies over the landscape, 2) if beaded lizards choose to inhabit areas that have a high frequency of potential burrows, and 3) how the extreme seasonality of a tropical dry forest might influence microhabitat selection. We hypothesized that there would be a higher frequency of potential shelters in areas that had known beaded lizard use. To test our hypothesis, we ran transects near 10 known burrow sites (5 wet season and 5 dry season) and 5 areas with no known Heloderma horridum activity, recording all potential burrows within a meter of each transect line. We found that beaded lizards tended to choose burrows with sediment roofs and floors, with the remaining potential shelters having tree root or rock components as well. Significantly more potential burrows were found in areas of known use (3.0 shelters/80m transect) than in non-site areas (1.4 shelters/80m transect). A chi-squared analysis showed that beaded lizards also prefer burrows with a west-facing entrance, most notably for dry season sites. Our results suggest that shelters (burrows) may be a limiting habitat feature for beaded lizards and that these lizards are selective in their choice of shelter sites, a result that may also apply to other species that inhabit tropical dry forests.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Daniel Beck, Lisa Ely