Human influence on the tameness of wall lizard, Podarcis muralis

Abstract

To investigate whether lizards may learn by experience to recognize, judge the intentions of, and decide when to escape from a potential predator, the wariness of wall lizards, Podareis muralis, inhabiting a mountainous Spanish site frequented by tourists and another very close to it, scarcely accessible to people, was compared. Predation pressure on the area, estimated using soft plasticine replicas of lizards, seemed to be weak. Lizards at the tourist site were less wary, and had shorter approach distances (i.e., the distance lizards allowed the observer to approach before fleeing). Neither the total distance they fled in one continuous movement from their initial position until hiding or stopping at a safe distance (flight distance) nor the distance to the nearest refuge were significantly different between sites. Escape behaviour was not influenced by distance to cover at the tourist site, whereas, at the other, lizards were more wary, and fled from an approaching observer at greater distances when they were farther from a potential refuge.