Age changes and probable importance of signal coloration in Lacerta saxicola (Sauria, Reptilia) males from the Navagir Ridge [Russian]

摘要

A group of marked lizards was observed for three years in natural conditions. In every marked individual, the last phalanx was amputated, and its age was determined by the bone layers. All males come to maturity in the 3d year of life independently of their coloration. Different males become green in the 3d, 4(th), 5(th) or 6(th) year of life. All green males were settled and displayed a territorial behavior. The territorial behavior in brown males was never recorded. The mails, which pined green coloration in the 3d year, had small and regular increment. The males gained green color in the 4 year or later had a greater increment in the 1(st) eyar of life and small growth in the future. The absence of green coloration does not prevent brown males from aggression of green individuals. The size and quality of home range and the degree of pressure of conspecifics are not related to the brightness of coloration of possessor of home ranges. However, females in encounters with bright-green males take initiative in contacts much more frequently, than in those with light-green ones. In contacts with brown, ales, the initiative of females was never ovserved. In home ranges of bright-green males, the density of females' population was 4 times as high as in home ranges of light-green males.