Abstract
Animals whose ecological niches largely overlap within a habitat can get into intra-specific and/or inter-specific competition for some of the limited resources available. We hypothesise that differences in locomotor abilities might be a key component deciding which individual will gain the resource, especially in animals with limited agility, such as turtles. To address this hypothesis, we tested self-righting ability and releasing from a vegetation alike rope in two sympatric populations of turtles: Emys orbicularis and Mauremys rivulata. All individuals managed to complete the tests promptly (≤ 103 s). When overturned on their carapace, E. orbicularis had shorter inspecting time, as well as overturning time, indicating slight advantage in self-righting. On the other hand, both species were equally efficient to release from a rope attached to the front of their plastron. The inter-specific morphological differences indicate that muscular strength might be a good predictor of competitive relations among syntopic turtle species.
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The data used to support the findings in this study are available as supplementary material.
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Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Barbara Horvatić and Anja Bolčina for help in the field. Fieldwork was financed by Association Hyla. Ana Golubović and Vukašin Bjelica are financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia, grant # 451-03-68/2022-14/200178.
Funding
Fieldwork was financed by Association Hyla. AG and VB are financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia, grant # 451–03-68/2022–14/200178.
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All authors contributed to the study. AG and AŠK conceived the study and performed the field work, AŠK provided the resources; AG and VB performed the analysis of data, and all three authors made interpretation of results; AG wrote the first draft of the manuscript; all three authors participated in the process of writing, critical revision, and intellectually relevant edition of the successive drafts.
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Golubović, A., Bjelica, V. & Koren, A.Š. Differences in locomotor performances between two sympatric species of freshwater turtles. acta ethol 26, 133–137 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-023-00420-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-023-00420-w