title: Sex differences in lizard escape decisions vary with latitude, but not sexual dimorphism.
abstract: Sexual selection is a powerful evolutionary mechanism that has shaped the physiology, behaviour and morphology of the sexes to the extent that it can reduce viability while promoting traits that enhance reproductive success. Predation is one of the underlying mechanisms accounting for viability costs of sexual displays. Therefore, we should expect that individuals of the two sexes adjust their anti-predator behaviour in response to changes in predation risk. We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 studies (42 species) of sex differences in risk-taking behaviour in lizards and tested whether these differences could be explained by sexual dichromatism, by sexual size dimorphism or by latitude. Latitude was the best predictor of the interspecific heterogeneity in sex-specific behaviour. Males did not change their escape behaviour with latitude, whereas females had increasingly reduced wariness at higher latitudes. We hypothesize that this sex difference in risk-taking behaviour is linked to sex-specific environmental constraints that more strongly affect the reproductive effort of females than males. This novel latitudinal effect on sex-specific anti-predator behaviour has important implications for responses to climate change and for the relative roles of natural and sexual selection in different species.
authors: Laboratory of Theoretical Ecology and Synthesis, Federal University of Goiás, CP. 131, Goiânia 74001-970, Brazil diogosamia@gmail.com.
authors: Diogo S M
authors: DS
authors: Samia
authors: Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Sud, CNRS UMR 8079, Bâtiment 362, Orsay Cedex 91405, France.
authors: Anders Pape
authors: AP
authors: Møller
authors: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA.
authors: Daniel T
authors: DT
authors: Blumstein
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA, 90840, USA.
authors: Theodore
authors: T
authors: Stankowich
authors: Department of Biology, Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN 46805, USA.
authors: William E
authors: WE
authors: Cooper
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D005260:Female; D020387:Food Chain; D005843:Geography; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D017678:Sex Distribution
keywords: anti-predator behaviour; flight initiation distance; latitude; lizards; meta-analysis; sexual selection