Israel Journal of Zoology   Issue:  Volume 46, Number 3 / 2000   Pages:  215 - 229   URL:  Linking Options THE EFFECTS OF POPULATION DENSITY ON TIME BUDGETS OF THE IBERIAN WALL LIZARD (PODARCIS HISPANICA) F. JAVIER DIEGO-RASILLA A1 and VALENTíN PÉREZ-MELLADO A1 A1 Department of Animal Biology, Universidad de Salamanca, 37071 Salamanca, Spain Abstract: Individual time budgets under natural conditions and under increased population density conditions were studied in a population of Podarcis hispanica inWestern Spain. We examined the effects of sex, time of day, and density on daily time budgets. Artificially increasing density indicated that demographic changes do affect time budgets, and that the animals initially respond with short-term compensatory behavior. We found that: (1) basking was the predominant behavior in time budgets of all lizards; (2) thermoregulatory patterns are affected by high population density; (3) our results confirm the hypothesis that density of population, and not sex, is a primary factor affecting basking behavior, i.e., high population density leads to increased basking; (4) social interaction frequency increased and percentage of time resting decreased at high population density. The references of this article are secured to subscribers.

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