Habitat dependent effects of experimental immune challenge on lizard anti-predator responses
Date
2016-11
Authors
Iglesias-Carrasco, Maider
Head, Megan
Cabido, Carlos
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
Lizards often respond to predators by hiding in sunless refuges, but this eliminates opportunities for thermoregulatory
basking. Hiding can therefore lower body condition.
Furthermore, in ectotherms basking is important to induce
fever and activate an immune response. A potential trade-off
therefore exists between lowering predation risk and elevating
body temperature to fight infection. Such a trade-off could be
habitat dependent if habitats differ in the relative risk of predation versus that of acquiring or countering an infection.
Here we take an experimental approach to test whether lizard
basking behavior is affected by a trade-off between predator
avoidance and fighting an infection. We quantified the antipredator behavior of male lizards (Podarcis liolepis) both before and after they were immune challenged (injected with
LPS) or not (injected with PBS control). To test the generality
of any trade-off, we tested lizards from both an urban and a
natural habitat. We found that males spent less time hiding
following a simulated predator attack after they had been immune challenged than before, but this decline was only significant for males from the natural habitat. We also tested whether morphological traits, body condition, and immune
response level explained variation in male hiding time. In
the natural habitat, but not in the urban habitat, males with
relatively small heads hid for significantly longer. In conclusion, we show that lizard anti-predator behavior is affected by
an immune challenge. Habitat differences in the factors that
predict hiding time offers potential insights into why this
might be the case.
Description
Keywords
Immunity, Life history, Podarcis liolepis, Predation costs, Trade-off, Urban habitat
Citation
Collections
Source
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Type
Journal article
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
2037-12-31