RT Journal Article
T1 Natural parasites in conjunction with behavioral and color traits explain male agonistic behaviors in a lizard
A1 Megia Palma, Rodrigo Manuel
A1 Paranajpe, Dhanashree
A1 Cooper, Robert D.
A1 Blaimont, Pauline
A1 Sinervo, Barry
AB Male competition conforms to a cost–benefit model, because while aggression may increase reproductive prospects, it can also increase the risk of injury. We hypothesize that an additional cost in aggressive males would be an increase in parasite load associated with a high energy investment into sexual competition. Some of these infections, in turn, may downmodulate the level of host aggression via energetic trade-offs. We staged dyadic male contests in the lab to investigate the relationships of multiple parasites with the agonistic behavior of lizard hosts, Sceloporus occidentalis. We also included both color and behavioral traits from opponents in the analyses because (1) color patches of lizards may serve as intraspecific signals used by conspecifics to assess the quality of opponents, and (2) contests between male lizards fit classical models of escalated aggression, where lizards increase aggression displays in response to an opponent’s behavior. The results conform to our hypothesis because male lizards displayed more pushups when they had more ticks. Moreover, some parasites may modulate the levels of aggression because lizards infected by hematic coccidians performed fewer pushups. Interestingly, lizards also displayed fewer pushups when both the chroma and size of the opponent’s blue patch were greater. The results thus also supported the role of the blue patch of S. occidentalis as a sexual armament, because it contributed to the deterrence of aggression from opponent lizards. We revealed that natural parasitic infections in lizard hosts can contribute to their agonistic behavior. We encourage future studies to account for parasites in behavioral tests with lizards.
PB Oxford University Press
SN 1674-5507
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/112688
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/112688
LA eng
NO Rodrigo Megía-Palma, Dhanashree Paranjpe, Robert D Cooper, Pauline Blaimont, Barry Sinervo, Natural parasites in conjunction with behavioral and color traits explain male agonistic behaviors in a lizard, Current Zoology, Volume 70, Issue 1, February 2024, Pages 59–69, https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoac095
NO Funding:American National Science Foundation and Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad provided financial support (EEBB-I-14-08326 to RM-P and EF-1241848 to BS). RM-P enjoys a postdoctoral contract (CEECIND/04084/2017) by ICETA – Instituto de Ciências, Tecnologias e Agroambiente da Universidade do Porto and Fundação da Ciência e Tecnologia.
NO American National Science Foundation
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
NO Instituto de Ciências, Tecnologias e Agroambiente da Universidade do Porto
NO Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 15 abr 2025