Urban Habitat Used by the Introduced Italian Wall Lizard (Podarcis Siculus)
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Basic and Applied Herpetology 32 (2018) 57-70 Where to live in Lisbon: urban habitat used by the introduced Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) Ricardo Ribeiro*, Paulo Sá-Sousa ICAAM – Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal *Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected] Received: 29 March 2018; returned for review: 22 May 2018; accepted 11 September 2018. Exotic animal invasions constitute a major threat to biodiversity worldwide. Our assessment deter- mined the core range occupied by the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) in the urban area of Parque das Nações (Lisbon, Portugal), where it was accidentally introduced two decades ago. Des- pite the apparent current scenario of non-expansion, the alien species interferes with the local dis- tribution pattern of the native P. virescens, with both lizard species shown to use the available mi- crohabitats differently. The native P. virescens population displays an overall heterogeneous dis- tribution in the urban matrix. On the other hand, the occupancy of the exotic species clusters with- in the original area of introduction (garden in front of the Lisbon Oceanarium), as well as in adja- cent gardens. There, P. siculus replaced the native P. virescens as the only lizard species present. Appa-rently, there is no known reason there that prevents the alien lizard from colonizing more available geographic area and expanding. Key words: Invasive species; Podarcis siculus; Podarcis virescens; spatial segregation. Invasive species currently represent logical tolerance and plasticity, allied with one of the major problems in nature con- high propagation capacity (Nevo et al., servation (Schulte, 2012). The damage 1972; Capula Ceccarelli, 2003; Crnobr- caused by invasive reptiles mainly comes nja-Isailovic et al., 2009; Silva-Rocha et from disruptions and changes in native al., 2014). Podarcis siculus is distributed conti food webs and ecosystem functions, with -nuously throughout the Italian Peninsula impacts ranging from predation on sensi- and East Adriatic coast, as well as for big tive species, intoxication of predators, islands - Sardinia (where recent studies competition and hybridization with native suggested that it may be allochtonous ins- species, vectorization of new parasites, as tead of native, Senczuk et al., 2017) and well as direct and indirect impacts on hu- Sicily - and a multitude of adjacent islets mans (Kraus, 2009; Fujisaki et al., 2010). (Corti Lo Cascio, 2002). Unlike the re- Among the European reptile species, the ported pet trade introductions in the USA Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus, Sau- (Kolbe et al., 2013), it might have been in- ria: Lacertidae) is considered as both an troduced by ship trade into Corsica, Bale- opportunistic species and a successful ex- arics and several port areas around the otic colonizer, characterized by wide eco- Mediterranean Basin e.g. SW France, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.11160/bah.101 RIBEIRO & SÁ-SOUSA Greece, Turkey, Tunisia or Lybia affected by this P. siculus introduction, al- (Carretero Silva-Rocha, 2015). though negative impacts are still unknown Towards Lisbon, some P. siculus indi- (such as expansion, hybridization or extin- viduals might have been transported ction of native species). Both species under along with rough materials and ornamen- study coexist in sympatry with other lacer- tal plants (structures in which they would tids in their native distributions, evidencing most likely be sheltered in or basking on), ecological segregation (Capula, 1993; Capu- from their place of origin, during the la et al., 1993; Carretero, 2008; ValdeÓn et Expo98 event (González de la Vega et al., al., 2010; Grano et al., 2011; Carretero 2001; Silva-Rocha et al., 2012). This appears Silva-Rocha, 2015; Carretero Salvador, to be a recurrent issue, as similar cases 2016). were reported by Rivera et al. (2011) and However, the introduction of the Italian ValdeÓn et al. (2010), after the observation of wall lizard in other areas has been shown to several P. siculus individuals in olive trees, be detrimental to autochthonous lacertids, imported from Calabria (Italy) to Catalo- especially in micro-insular environments, nia (Spain). with evidence of competitive spatial coex- In urban environments, which are istence or exclusion (Nevo et al., 1972; Cap- typically characterized by spatially and ula, 2002; Capula Ceccarelli, 2003; Pod- temporally heterogeneous thermal mos- nar et al., 2005; ValdeÓn et al., 2010; Mateo aics, ecological interactions with poten- et al., 2011; Carretero Silva-Rocha, tial competitors and predators may also 2015). influence patterns of occurrence and abun- Based on previous personal reports dance of individuals of a given species from Paulo Sá-Sousa and bibliography (Kolbe et al., 2016). In those environments, it from Loureiro et al. (2008), this study’s main has been observed that sympatric lacertids objectives consisted in determining the cur- (namely Podarcis muralis and P. siculus) rent range area occupied by the introduced are spatially organized according to each P. siculus and assessing the degree of spatial species specific ecological needs, and there- segregation exerted by the exotic popula- fore not limited to interspecific interactions tion upon the autochthonous species. This (Capula et al., 1993). Lizard species often tend required the knowledge of the current spa- to be associated with specific microhabitat tial distribution of both species in Lisbon, as patches, with minimized interspecific com- well as each species microhabitat prefer- petition through their spatial niche distri- ences, according to the available space. bution (Smith Ballinger, 2001; Rugiero Materials and methods Luiselli, 2007; Vitt Caldwell, 2014). However, there may be cases where the The study area covered the location microhabitat occupied by a certain species where P. siculus was first introduced is restricted by the presence of another and consequently reproduced (González (Arnold, 1987). That could be the case with de la Vega et al., 2001), within the so-called autochthonous Podarcis virescens (Geniez Parque das Nações, a leisure and residential et al., 2014; Dias et al., 2016), which might be area of Lisbon (38°45ʹ43.7ʺN 9°05ʹ39.0ʺW, 58 HABITAT OCCUPANCY BY PODARCIS SICULUS IN LISBON Figure 1: Total prospected area limited in red; Podarcis siculus introduction spot highlighted by a black square. Fig. 1). For lizard sampling one large poly- were favourable weather conditions for gon was delimited to address the possible lizard thermoregulation). However, some expansion and establishment of new po- sectors took longer to cover in cases of pulations towards adjacent spots. The high occurrence of observations. All lizard sampling area was subsequently divided observations (each corresponding to one in 16 plots or sectors with approximate individual) consisted of visual encounters dimensions, to facilitate the visual encoun- (Lambert, 1984; Eekhout, 2010), where the ter of lizards. Although these plots consis- following data was recorded: GPS point of ted of urban areas, there are contrasting location, species (P. siculus or P. vi- differences between them, ranging from rescens), behaviour activity, perch type, height those that show predominance of artificial and slope, distance to vegetation cover, elements, to those that hold some garden refuge type and distance to refuge, along spots with lawn or a more rustic appear- with the substrate texture, number of ance, usually consisting of an eclectic se- trees, shrubs, non-woody plants and dead lection of plant species from various re- branches/trunks, found within a four me- gions of the world (Pedrosa, 2013). ters radius surrounding each observation Due to statistical and data indepen- point (the dissertation from which this dence reasons, the sectors were sampled article was adapted covered a wider range following a random order. Each sector was of variables, including sex and size class, surveyed by walking at a slow, steady which were considered negligible for the pace, during one sunny day (when there study´s purpose, primarily focused on 59 RIBEIRO & SÁ-SOUSA Figure 2: Spatial distribution of both species (A - total area; B - focus in the pre- sence of Podarcis siculus). Red symbols – introduced Podarcis siculus; Green sym- bols - autochthonous Po- darcis virescens. habitat use and microspatial distribution, 0.05) (Strode Brokaw, 2015). The chi- and therefore discarded from this paper). squared test was used for comparison be- The first round of sampling covered all (16) tween species, regarding the data collected sectors, providing a general acquaintance of on the constituent elements of the micro- both the study area and its lizard occupan- habitats used by both species, where the cy. Based on this previous data assessment, formulated null hypothesis was that “there the second and third rounds covered only 8 are no differences between the use given by of the 16 sectors, excluding those where P. the invasive and autochthonous species to siculus was clearly absent in the first round. the elements present in the microhabitat”. Thus, the first round took place between For this test’s application we used raw data, April 25th, 2016 and July 3rd, 2016; the sec- that is, simple counts (observations), ins- ond began on September 8th, 2016 and en- tead of percentages or proportions (Strode ded on September 21st, 2016; the third lasted Brokaw, 2015), presented in table,