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Cfreptiles & Amphibians HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL & AMPHIBIANS15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 28(2):189 292–294 • AUG 2021 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS ObservationsFEATURE ARTICLES of Southern Italian Wall Lizards . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: On the Road to Understanding(Podarcis the Ecology and Conservation siculus of the Midwest’s Giant siculus Serpent ......................) Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A HypotheticalScavenging Excursion ............................................................................................................................ Artificial FoodsRobert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCH ARTICLES in. Thethe Texas Horned Province Lizard in Central and Western Texasof ....................... Messina, Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Sicily,Krista Mougey, and Gad PerryItaly 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida .............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 Matthew Mo and Elouise Mo CONSERVATION ALERT Sydney, New South Wales, Australia ([email protected]) . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 . More Than Mammals ...............................................................................................................................Photographs by the authors. ....................................... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 he Italian Wall Lizard or Ruin Lizard (Podarcis siculus) other reptiles, including conspecifics, small mammals (Capula is a lacertidPROFILE lizard naturally occurring on the Italian and Aloise 2011; Zuffi and Giannelli 2013), and plant mat- T . Peninsula, the islandKraig of Adler: Sicily A Lifetime and Promoting adjacent Herpetology parts ................................................................................................of south- ter including seeds and fruit Michael (Pérez-Mellado L. Treglia 234 and Corti 1993; ern Europe (SpeybroeckCOMMENTARY et al. 2016). These opportunistic Mačát et al. 2015). Here, we report observations of the nomi- lizards, effectively .habituatedThe Turtles Have to Been urban Watching situations Me ........................................................................................................................ (Putman nate subspecies scavenging artificial Eric Gangloff foods. 238 et al. 2020), haveBOOK successfully REVIEW colonized areas far from their Italian Wall Lizards are common in the streets and public native range, including. Threatened the UnitedAmphibians States of the World of America edited by S.N. (Kolbe Stuart, M. Hoffmann,gardens J.S. of Chanson,Taormina N.A. (37.850904Cox, °N, 15.289437°E), a seaside et al. 2013) and RussiaR. Berridge, (Tuniyev P. Ramani, et andal. B.E. 2020). Young ..............................................................................................................The spread town in the Province of Messina Robert Powell in northeastern243 Sicily. On of the species at least in part has been aided by its general- 10 May 2019, we observed lizards scavenging pieces of cheese ist diet, which consists CONSERVATION mainly of RESEARCHinvertebrates REPORTS: (Capula Summaries et al. of Publishedthat Conservation had fallen Research to theReports ground ................................. from a picnic245 table. Our first NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 1993; Rugiero 1994; NEWBRIEFS Bonacci ............................................................................................................................... et al. 2008), but can extend to observation involved....................................................... a rectangular piece 248 of parmesan cheese EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252 Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. Fig. 1. An Italian Wall Lizard (Podarcis siculus) nips at a piece of parmesan cheese (top) before seeing off a conspecific (bottom). Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 292 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. MO AND MO REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(2): 292–294 • AUG 2021 Fig. 2. An Italian Wall Lizard (Podarcis siculus) watches picnickers from a rock wall (top) and snatches up a piece of cheese that fell to the ground (bottom). approximately 1 x 4 cm. A lizard approached cautiously, pastina. After swallowing a second morsel, it lost interest and paused next to the cheese, appeared vigilant for approximately scampered away. We left the remaining pieces for the rest of 30 seconds, then lowered its snout as if to sniff the cheese the day, but they did not appear to attract any further interest before nipping at the side of it and dislodging a morsel with from lizards. a brief shake (Fig. 1). A second lizard approached and was That Italian Wall Lizards sought artificial food, even met by the first. After a brief standoff, the first lizard chased when humans were present, matched descriptions of them off the interloper and resumed nipping at the cheese. It was being active foragers (Vervust et al. 2010; Capula and Aloise subsequently disturbed and driven into nearby vegetation by 2011) that sometimes are drawn to motionless food items passing people. We remained in the area for a further 10 min- (e.g., carrion and plant matter; Capula and Aloise 2011; utes but did not see the lizard reappear. Mačát et al. 2015). Scavenging food scraps from humans has On the same day, we sighted another Italian Wall Lizard been reported for a range of lizard taxa (e.g., Uyeda 2009; Mo emerging from a rock wall showing interest in a group of pic- and Mo 2021). Such reports demonstrate an ecological adapt- nickers. When a small morsel of cheese was dropped from ability of species that enhances their ability to colonize human the table, this lizard immediately descended to the ground, settlements. consumed the cheese (Fig. 2), and remained in place for a few seconds before scampering back to the wall. Literature Cited We also encountered a population of Italian Wall Lizards Bonacci, T., G. Aloise, P. Brandmayr, T. Zetto Brandmayr, and M. Capula. 2008. Testing the predatory behavior of Podarcis sicula (Reptilia: Lacertidae) towards inhabiting an agricultural area on the outskirts of Graniti, aposematic and non-aposematic prey. Amphibia-Reptilia 29: 449–453. Sicily (37.878972°N, 15.213753°E). The lizards were asso- Capula, M. and G. Aloise. 2011. Extreme feeding behaviours in the Italian ciated with rockeries, rock walls, logs, or tree stumps, but Wall Lizard, Podarcis siculus. Acta Herpetologica 6: 11–14. https://doi. particularly abundant near homesteads, where refugia were org/10.13128/Acta_Herpetol-9573. Capula, M., L. Luiselli, and L. Rugiero. 1993. Comparative ecology in sym- readily available. On 11 May 2019, we spilled a few pieces of patric Podarcis muralis and P. sicula (Reptilia: Lacertidae) from the his- freshly cooked pastina where lizards sometimes basked. After torical centre of Rome: what about competition and niche segregation in an urban habitat? Bollettino di Zoologia 60: 287–291. https://doi. two hours, a lizard approached one of the pieces (Fig. 3), org/10.1080/11250009309355825. spent approximately 2 minutes sizing it up before mouthing Kolbe, J.J., B.R. Lavin, R.L. Burke, L. Rugiero, M. Capula, and L. Luiselli. 2013. it repeatedly and finally shaking off a morsel. The lizard held The desire for variety: Italian Wall Lizard (Podarcis siculus) populations intro- duced to the United States via the pet trade are derived from multiple native- the morsel in its mouth for some time but eventually swal- range sources. Biological Invasions 15: 775–783. https://doi.org/10.1007/ lowed it. After several minutes this lizard again nipped at the s10530-012-0325-7. 293 MO AND MO REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(2): 292–294 • AUG 2021 Fig. 3. An Italian Wall Lizard (Podarcis siculus) negotiates morsels from a piece of pastina. Mačát, Z., M. Veselý, and D. Jablonski. 2015. New case of fruit eating observation Plc, London, UK. in Podarcis siculus (Rafinesque-Schmaltz,
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