Abstract
A previous study showed that little brown skinks, Scincella lateralis, from a population in Louisiana, USA were poor at learning to escape to a specific retreat in a series of laboratory trials. The study was repeated on little brown skinks from a population in Oklahoma (650 km from the Louisiana population). The Oklahoma lizards were significantly better at learning to escape to a specific retreat than their Louisiana counterparts. This result demonstrates that geographic variation in the ability to learn an escape behavior exists in this species.
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References
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, McNeese State University (MSU), for providing laboratory space for the Louisiana portion of the study. Funding for the Oklahoma portion of the study was provided by a Faculty Research Committee Grant from Northeastern State University (NSU); laboratory space was provided by the NSU Bioscience Research Facility. I wish to thank R. Murray, T. Hibbs, and T. Whychell for their assistance in catching or caring for lizards and T. Hibbs for providing constructive comments on a draft of this manuscript. The captive maintenance procedures and research protocols were approved by the MSU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and by the NSU Animal Welfare Committee. Little brown skinks were collected under the authority of Scientific Collecting Permits granted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LNHP-05-004; LNHP-02-018) and by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (no. 4368).
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Paulissen, M.A. Geographic variation in learning of escape behavior in the little brown skink (Scincella lateralis). J Ethol 29, 493–497 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-011-0278-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-011-0278-9