title: When the going gets tough: behavioural type-dependent space use in the sleepy lizard changes as the season dries.
abstract: Understanding space use remains a major challenge for animal ecology, with implications for species interactions, disease spread, and conservation. Behavioural type (BT) may shape the space use of individuals within animal populations. Bolder or more aggressive individuals tend to be more exploratory and disperse further. Yet, to date we have limited knowledge on how space use other than dispersal depends on BT. To address this question we studied BT-dependent space-use patterns of sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) in southern Australia. We combined high-resolution global positioning system (GPS) tracking of 72 free-ranging lizards with repeated behavioural assays, and with a survey of the spatial distributions of their food and refuge resources. Bayesian generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) showed that lizards responded to the spatial distribution of resources at the neighbourhood scale and to the intensity of space use by other conspecifics (showing apparent conspecific avoidance). BT (especially aggressiveness) affected space use by lizards and their response to ecological and social factors, in a seasonally dependent manner. Many of these effects and interactions were stronger later in the season when food became scarce and environmental conditions got tougher. For example, refuge and food availability became more important later in the season and unaggressive lizards were more responsive to these predictors. These findings highlight a commonly overlooked source of heterogeneity in animal space use and improve our mechanistic understanding of processes leading to behaviourally driven disease dynamics and social structure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, CA, USA orr.spiegel@mail.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Orr
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Spiegel
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephan T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Leu
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sih
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South St, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephanie S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Godfrey
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: C Michael
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bull
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D017753:Ecosystem; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006702:Homing Behavior; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012621:Seasons; D013021:South Australia; D062206:Spatial Analysis
keywords: Bayesian generalized linear mixed models (GLMM); animal personality; behavioural syndromes; global positioning system (GPS)-telemetry; movement ecology; spatial ecology