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1 March 2009 Testing the Quality of a Carrier: a Field Experiment on Lizard Signalers
Mats Olsson, Mo Healey, Erik Wapstra, Tobias Uller
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Abstract

In the Australian painted dragon lizard (Ctenophorus pictus), males occur in two different morphs with respect to gular color, with or without a yellow bib. Males without a bib lost within-clutch paternity significantly more often to rivals than bibbed males. Thus, it appears that bibs identify some phenotypic advantage linked to competitive ability. To test whether this could be related to whole-organism capacity to withstand an increased workload (due to better health and vigor, or evolved differences in self-maintenance), we implanted males with a lead pellet (loaded), Styrofoam pellet (controls), or sham-operated males without implants (shams), and compared male categories with respect to how they maintained body mass during the mating season. Somewhat unexpectedly, bibbed males consistently lost more body weight across all treatments and controls, although we could not verify that this translated into higher mortality in this short-lived animal (about 80% survive for one year only). However, bibbed males may invest more into “mating success” than nonbibbed males, which agrees with our experimental results and paternity data.

© 2009 The Society for the Study of Evolution
Mats Olsson, Mo Healey, Erik Wapstra, and Tobias Uller "Testing the Quality of a Carrier: a Field Experiment on Lizard Signalers," Evolution 63(3), 695-701, (1 March 2009). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00569.x
Received: 18 February 2008; Accepted: 1 October 2008; Published: 1 March 2009
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KEYWORDS
Bib
costly signaling
Handicap principle
lizard
multiple paternity
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