Exploratory and neophilic behaviour of Podarcis siculus and Podarcis melisellensis

The Italian (Podarcis siculus) and Dalmatian (Podarcis melisellensis) wall lizards, which coexist in the Eastern-Adriatic, have similar ecological traits, although P. siculus has invasive potential and is often larger. To understand the mechanisms of coexistence, we measured exploratory behavior, activity levels, neophilia, neophobia, and repeatability in individuals of both sexes and both species that were taken from three sympatric wild populations (N=240).

栖息于东亚得里亚海域的意大利壁蜥（Podarcis siculus）与达尔马提亚壁蜥（Podarcis melisellensis）具有相似的生态特征，尽管意大利壁蜥具备入侵潜力且体型通常更大。为阐明二者的共存机制，我们从3个同域野生种群中采集了两个物种的两性个体（总样本量N=240），对其探索行为、活动水平、嗜新性、恐新性及行为重复性开展了测定。