Diet Selection and Depression of Prey Abundance by an Intensively Foraging Lizard

• Published in: Journal of herpetology Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 164 - 170
• Main Author: Lewis, Allen R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Saint Louis, MO Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles 01-06-1989
• Subjects: Amphibia and reptilia; Animal ethology; Biological and medical sciences; Diet; Feces; Foraging; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Insect eggs; Lizards; Plant litter; Predation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Snails; Stomach; Termites; Vertebrata; Predator prey relation; Central America; Puerto Rico; Feeding behavior; West Indies; Foraging behavior; Feeding; Vertebrata; Sauria; Diet; America; Reptilia; Predation; Prey selection
• ISSN: 0022-1511; 1937-2418
• DOI: 10.2307/1564023

Diet of the intensively foraging Puerto Rican lizard Ameiva exsul included most taxa of macroorganisms found in the leaf litter and soil surface at the study site. Novertheless, certain items, Anolis eggs an extreme example, were overconsumed in relation to their abundance as determined by stratified random sampling of the leaf litter and soil surface where the lizards foraged. Other food items, such as land snails, were important in the diet but underconsumed relative to their high level of abundance in the leaf litter. Millipedes and termites were the only common litter organisms encounterd that were not found in diet samples. Effects of Ameiva predation on abundance of land snails were studied in two experiments with hardware cloth exclosures that permitted free movement of snails through the 1.3 cm × 1.3 cm mesh and entrance of Anolis and birds through the open tops. Adult A. exsul were the only predators known to be excluded. Protection from A. exsul was associated with increased abundance of the low mobility land snails. No consistent changes in other species were detected.