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MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE of the INTRODUCED GECKO Hemidactylus Turcicus in an URBAN ENVIRONMENT

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MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE of the INTRODUCED GECKO Hemidactylus Turcicus in an URBAN ENVIRONMENT MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE OF THE INTRODUCED GECKO Hemidactylus turcicus IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT By PATRICIA A.GOMEZ ZLATAR A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2003 Copyright 2003 by Patricia A. Gomez Zlatar ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my committee chair, Mike Moulton, for his constant support, mentoring, and enthusiasm. His friendship has been instrumental in the completion of this degree. I owe a great deal of thanks to committee member Ken Portier for the endless hours of guidance he provided. I am also grateful to committee member Dick Franz, for providing useful comments and ideas throughout the study. It has been both a privilege and pleasure to interact with them all. Many people made my fieldwork possible. I owe thanks to both the UF Physical Plant Division and to J. Darcy White for providing me with detailed maps and a wealth of information. I would like to thank the UF Campus Police Force and the VA Hospital Police Force for keeping my helpers and me safe during our nighttime surveys. I also want to give a big thanks to Chuck Knapp, Ester Langan, Elza Kephart, Alex Martin, and Robin Sternberg for providing endless hours of field assistance. Finally, I want to give immense gratitude to those closest to me. I give thanks to my family, especially my parents. Also, I want to thank my close friends (they know they are). Last, but not least, I want to thank Alex Martin for his patience, friendship, and love. I could not have done it without him. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Urban Ecology..............................................................................................................1 General Objective .........................................................................................................2 2 STUDY SPECIES AND STUDY SITES.....................................................................3 Study Species................................................................................................................3 Study Sites ....................................................................................................................6 The Study Species in the Study Sites ...........................................................................8 3 PRELIMINARY SURVEY..........................................................................................9 Introduction...................................................................................................................9 Methods ........................................................................................................................9 Results.........................................................................................................................11 Discussion...................................................................................................................13 4 ADDITIONAL NATURAL HISTORY NOTES .......................................................21 Introduction.................................................................................................................21 Methods ......................................................................................................................23 Results.........................................................................................................................24 Summer 2001.......................................................................................................24 Fall/Winter 2001..................................................................................................25 Spring 2002 .........................................................................................................26 Discussion...................................................................................................................26 iv 5 MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE IN THE INTRODUCED GECKO, HEMIDACTYLUS TURCICUS...................................................................................39 Introduction.................................................................................................................39 Methods and Results...................................................................................................41 Sampling Methods...............................................................................................41 Data Analysis 1....................................................................................................44 Results 1 ..............................................................................................................46 Data Analysis 2....................................................................................................48 Results 2 ..............................................................................................................49 Data Analysis 3....................................................................................................50 Results 3 ..............................................................................................................50 Data Analysis 4....................................................................................................51 Results 4 ..............................................................................................................52 Data Analysis 5....................................................................................................52 Results 5 ..............................................................................................................52 Discussion...................................................................................................................54 6 MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT ....75 APPENDIX A PRELIMINARY SURVEY DATA............................................................................79 B NATURAL HISTORY DATA...................................................................................81 C MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE DATA ...............................................................84 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................91 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .............................................................................................96 v LIST OF TABLES Table page 3-1 Criteria of wall characterization variables used in preliminary survey....................16 4-1 Criteria of natural history variables..........................................................................31 4-2 Temperature measurements of wall surface for adult and subadult H. turcicus; fall/winter 2001 ........................................................................................................31 4-3 Temperature measurements of wall surface for adult H. turcicus; spring 2002.......31 5-1 Description of wall characterization variables for microhabitat study.....................57 5-2 Chi-square and Fisher Exact p-values for wall characterization variables ..............58 5-3 The dependency of age, color, length, and texture on material................................59 5-4 Logistic regression models resulting from the backward elimination method using the variables: material; cardinal orientation, vegetation, light .......................60 5-5 Summary statistics of the significant predictor variables of the M*CO*V+M*CO*L model .....................................................................................62 5-6 Possible wall combinations involving the variables: material, cardinal orientation, vegetation, and light..............................................................................63 5-7 Number of observations per wall combination involving the variables: material, vegetation (2 levels), and light .................................................................................64 5-8 Logistic regression models resulting from the backward elimination method using the variables: material, vegetation (2 levels), and light..................................65 5-9 Number of observations per wall combination involving the variables: material, and light-vegetation (3 levels)..................................................................................67 5-10 Logistic regression models resulting from the backward elimination method using the variables: material, and light-vegetation (3 levels)...................................67 5-11 Chi-square test and Fisher’s Exact test for light-vegetation and gecko presence, controlling for material.............................................................................................68 vi 5-12 Chi-square test and Fisher’s Exact test for material and gecko presence, controlling for light-vegetation ................................................................................69
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