First Record of Jungle Babbler Argya striata Feeding on House Gecko Hemidactylus sp.

We report the first record of jungle babbler Argya striata feeding on house gecko Hemidactylus sp. in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. On the morning of 09th October 2018, a small group of jungle babblers consisting of six adults and two fledglings were observed in and around plants pots and compost bins on the roof of author’s residence. A juvenile house gecko Hemidactylus sp. appeared to have incidentally flushed out of a crevice by the foraging birds. It was immediately attacked by two adults and was killed quickly by heavy pecking on gecko’s body. The gecko’s tail was quickly fed upon by one of the two attacking birds after tail autotomy. Once the gecko stopped moving, the two attacking birds tried consuming the gecko whole but soon dropped it as it appeared to be too big to swallow the whole body. They started pecking out small pieces from the head and stomach area. At one point, the two birds held the gecko from two places, one from the head and the other held a front limb and started to tug. Other members of the group were uninterested in the entire event and did not participate. The two attacking birds continued pecking out small pieces until they weren’t hungry anymore. They left the remaining body and joined the resting members of the group.

Cutaneous tactile sensitivity before and after tail loss and regeneration in the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius)

Amongst tetrapods, mechanoreceptors on the feet establish a sense of body placement and help to facilitate posture and biomechanics. Mechanoreceptors are necessary for stabilizing the body while navigating through changing terrains or responding to a sudden change in body mass and orientation. Lizards such as the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) employ autotomy – a voluntary detachment of a portion of the tail, to escape predation. Tail autotomy represents a natural form of significant (and localized) mass loss. Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments were used to investigate the effect of tail autotomy (and subsequent tail regeneration) on tactile sensitivity of each appendage of the leopard gecko. Prior to autotomy, we identified site-specific differences in tactile sensitivity across the ventral surfaces of the hindlimbs, forelimbs, and tail. Repeated monofilament testing of both control (tail-intact) and tail loss geckos had a significant sensitization effect (i.e., decrease in tactile threshold, maintained over time) in all regions of interest except the palmar surfaces of the forelimbs in post-autotomy geckos, compared to baseline testing. Although the regenerated tail is not an exact replica of the original, tactile sensitivity is shown to be effectively restored at this site. Re-establishment of tactile sensitivity on the ventral surface of the regenerate tail points towards a (continued) role in predator detection.

Telomere length covaries with age across an elevational gradient in a Mediterranean lizard

The timing of organisms’ senescence is developmentally programmed but also shaped by the interaction between environmental inputs and life-history traits. In ectotherms, ageing dynamics are still poorly understood despite their particularities concerning thermoregulation, regeneration capacity, or growth trajectory. Here, we investigate the role of life-history traits such as age, sex, body size, body condition, and tail autotomy (i.e self-amputation) in shaping telomere length of six populations of the Algerian sand lizard (Psammodromus algirus) distributed across an elevational gradient from 300 to 2500 meters above the sea level. Additionally, we show in a review table the available information on reptiles’ telomere length. We found that telomeres elongated with lizards’ age. We also observed that body size and age class showed a positive relationship, suggesting that cell replication did not shorten lizards’ telomeres by itself. Elevation affected telomere length in a non-linear way, a pattern that mirrored the variation in age structure across elevation. Telomere length was unaffected by tail autotomy, and was sex-independent, but positively correlated with body condition. Our results show that telomeres elongate throughout the first four years of lizards’ lifetime, a process that stress the role of telomerase in maintaining ectothermic telomeres, and, likely, in extending lifespan in organisms with indeterminate growth. Regarding the non-linear impact that elevation had on telomere length of lizards, our results suggest that habitat (mainly temperature) and organisms’ condition might play a key role in regulation ageing rate. Our findings emphasize the relevance of understanding species’ life histories (e.g. age and body condition) and habitat characteristics for fully disentangling the causes and consequences of lifespan trajectory.