Successful lizard eggs in a human-disturbed habitat.

Abstract

As humans extend their influence to an increasingly large portion of the globe, it becomes of both theoretical and practical interest to understand the consequences of our activities on wildlife populations. Norops polylepis is a small anoline lizard native to rainforest of southern Costa Rica. It is also found and known to lay eggs in cattle pastures immediately adjacent to forest. I predicted that N. polylepis eggs would fare poorly in pastures because of the important abiotic and biotic differences with their native forest habitat. I obtained eggs from captive females and estimated an egg's probability of hatching, daily survival rate, and incubation time at various distances along a forest-to-pasture gradient. Contrary to expectation, egg survival rates were higher in pastures than in forest areas. Furthermore, egg incubation times were significantly shorter in pastures than in their native forest. As a result, eggs were at least as likely to hatch in pastures as in forested areas. Thus, pastures may represent a benign or even beneficial habitat for the eggs of some reptile species. High survival of eggs will facilitate range expansion into human-altered habitats such as pastures, but does not guarantee it. Indeed, pastures could represent an ecological trap and a population sink if adults are drawn there (e.g., in search of favorable ovipositioning sites) yet suffer higher mortality than in forests.