Effects of female presence on intrasexual aggression in male lizards, Podarcis hispanicus

Abstract

AbstractResource value and expected gain in reproduction may affect motivation to fight and the likelihood of winning. Previous experiments have showed that males increase their fighting effort when defending a territory that contains females. However, we hypothesized that for an intruding lizard, the value of a new territory may be lower if he already has a female in his own territory, and consequently, aggressivity should be lesser than if he has no access to any female. We staged encounters between males of the lizard Podarcis hispanicus in outdoor terraria to analyze the outcome and detailed behaviors involved in agonistic interactions in the presence or absence of a female in the terraria of resident and intruders. Our results showed that when a female was present, the level of aggressivity of the resident male was higher; the probability of winning the contest also increased, but only if the intruding male had no females in his own terraria. In contrast, when the intruding male was also the owner of another territory containing a female, residents were less aggressive. We suggest that the lack of information on the reproductive state of an unfamiliar female may be enough to decrease fighting motivation of an intruding male, if he has more expectations of success with his own familiar female. We conclude that differences in expected reproductive success with different females may help to decide the outcome of conflicts between males quicker and cheaper. Aggr. Behav. 28:491–498, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.