title: Fifty years of chasing lizards: new insights advance optimal escape theory.
abstract: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses often examine data from diverse taxa to identify general patterns of effect sizes. Meta-analyses that focus on identifying generalisations in a single taxon are also valuable because species in a taxon are more likely to share similar unique constraints. We conducted a comprehensive phylogenetic meta-analysis of flight initiation distance in lizards. Flight initiation distance (FID) is a common metric used to quantify risk-taking and has previously been shown to reflect adaptive decision-making. The past decade has seen an explosion of studies focused on quantifying FID in lizards, and, because lizards occur in a wide range of habitats, are ecologically diverse, and are typically smaller and differ physiologically from the better studied mammals and birds, they are worthy of detailed examination. We found that variables that reflect the costs or benefits of flight (being engaged in social interactions, having food available) as well as certain predator effects (predator size and approach speed) had large effects on FID in the directions predicted by optimal escape theory. Variables that were associated with morphology (with the exception of crypsis) and physiology had relatively small effects, whereas habitat selection factors typically had moderate to large effect sizes. Lizards, like other taxa, are very sensitive to the costs of flight.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Theoretical Ecology and Synthesis, Federal University of Goiás, CP. 131, 74001-970 Goiânia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Diogo S M
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Samia
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Daniel T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Blumstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Theodore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stankowich
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46835, U.S.A.
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000502:physiology*; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology
keywords: antipredator behaviour; escape behaviour; escape distance; flight initiation distance; lizards; meta-analysis; optimal escape theory; phylogenetic meta-analysis