Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The costs of living in the city: influence of urbanization on the trophic niche and body condition of the African rainbow lizard Agama picticauda

  • Research
  • Published:
European Journal of Wildlife Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Trophic niche is a fundamental aspect of the ecology and natural history of animals, influencing their behavior, health, survival, and population dynamics. Although urbanization can strongly affect the trophic niche of wildlife by altering prey availability, abundance, and distribution, this effect remains understudied in tropical reptiles. Here, we assessed the influence of urbanization on the trophic niche and body condition of the West African rainbow lizard Agama picticauda in the Accra Plains of Ghana. Gastrointestinal content analysis of 98 lizards sampled from urban, suburban, and rural areas revealed 1088 prey items belonging to 14 orders and ~47 families of arthropods. Generally, the lizards consumed insects, with Hymenoptera (Formicidae) and Coleoptera (Carabidae) being the most frequently consumed prey orders. Multinomial regression modeling indicated that sex and site strongly affected the diet and body condition of the lizards, with suburban and rural lizards scoring the highest and lowest on both trophic niche breadth and body condition, respectively. We found a weak positive association between body condition and the diversity of ingested prey orders. Our data indicated that urbanization negatively influenced the trophic niche and body condition of A. picticauda. Although the differences in body condition among sites were not statistically significant, these could have important biological ramifications. The negative body condition of the urban female lizards suggests that the city could be an ecological trap, which can reduce the long-term fitness of lizards living in the urban area. Our findings can inform urban land use planning and effective conservation of urban habitats. We caution, however, that the findings of this study may not necessarily reflect the long-term trophic dynamics of rainbow lizards in the Accra Plains of Ghana and other cities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  • Akani GC, Petrozzi F, Rugiero L, Segniagbeto GH, Luiselli L (2013) Effects of rainfall and geography on the comparative diets of eight rainbow lizard populations across Togo, Benin and Nigeria (West Africa). Amphib-Reptil 34(2):185–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alveal N, Díaz-Páez H (2021) Diet composition of Atelognathus nitoi (Barrio, 1973) in the Chilean Patagonia. Herpetol Notes 14:231–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Alzaga V, Vicente J, Villanua D, Acevedo P, Casas F, Gortazar C (2008) Body condition and parasite intensity correlates with escape capacity in Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62(5):769–775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aubry LM, Rockwell RF, Cooch EG, Brook RW, Mulder CPH, Koons DN (2013) Climate change, phenology, and habitat degradation: drivers of gosling body condition and juvenile survival in lesser snow geese. Glob Change Biol 19(1):149–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker MAA, Katbeh-Bader AA, Ghlelat AA, Disi AM, Amr ZS (2021) Diet and food niche relationships of lizard assemblages in Jordan. Herpetol Conserv Biol 16(1):117–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Balakrishna S, Batabyal A, Thaker M (2016) Dining in the city: dietary shifts in Indian rock agamas across an urban–rural landscape. J Herpetol 50(3):423–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Băncilă RI, Hartel T, Plăiaşu R, Smets J, Cogălniceanu D (2010) Comparing three body condition indices in amphibians: a case study of yellow-bellied toad Bombina variegata. Amphib-Reptil 31(4):558–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Battles AC, Whittle TK, Stehle CM, Johnson MA (2013) Effects of human land use on prey availability and body condition in the green anole lizard, Anolis Carolinensis. Herpetol Conserv Biol 8(1):16–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Beliniak A, Gryz J, Klich D, Jasinska K, Krauze-Gryz D (2022) Body condition and breeding of urban red squirrels: comparison of two populations affected by different levels of urbanization. Animals 12(23):3246

  • Brodeur JC, Damonte MJ, Candioti JV, Poliserpi MB, D’Andrea MF, Bahl MF (2020) Frog body condition: basic assumptions, comparison of methods and characterization of natural variability with field data from Leptodactylus latrans. Ecol Ind 112:106098

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chejanovski ZA, Avilés-Rodríguez KJ, Lapiedra O, Preisser EL, Kolbe JJ (2017) An experimental evaluation of foraging decisions in urban and natural forest populations of Anolis lizards. Urban Ecosyst 20(5):1011–1018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chejanovski ZA, Giery ST, Kolbe JJ (2022) Effects of urbanization on the trophic niche of the brown anole, a widespread invasive lizard. Food Webs 33:e00257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cloudsley-Thompson JL (1981) A comparison of rhythmic locomotory activity in tropical forest Arthropoda with that in desert species. J Arid Environ 4(4):327–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham CX, Johnson CN, Hollings T, Kreger K, Jones ME (2019) Trophic rewilding establishes a landscape of fear: Tasmanian devil introduction increases risk-sensitive foraging in a key prey species. Ecography 42(12):2053–2059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Díaz JA, Sugai JLMM, Ceron K, Moroti MT, Santana DJ (2020) Dietary selectivity and sexual size dimorphism of Chiasmocleis mehelyi (Anura: Microhylidae) in a Cerrado area of southwest Brazil. North West J Zool 16(2):166–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Drago MC, Kato MM, Koster R, Vrcibradic D (2020) How does habitat anthropization influence lizard diets? An analysis comparing two populations of Tropidurus torquatus (Iguania). J Herpetol 54(2):144–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubey S, Shine R (2010) Restricted dispersal and genetic diversity in populations of an endangered montane lizard (Eulamprus leuraensis, Scincidae). Mol Ecol 19(5):886–897

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Falk BG, Snow RW, Reed RN (2017) A validation of 11 body-condition indices in a giant snake species that exhibits positive allometry. PLoS ONE 12(7):e0180791

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fenoglio MS, Rossetti MR, Videla M (2020) Negative effects of urbanization on terrestrial arthropod communities: a meta-analysis. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 29(8):1412–1429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer JD, Cleeton SH, Lyons TP, Miller JR (2012) Urbanization and the predation paradox: the role of trophic dynamics in structuring vertebrate communities. Bioscience 62(9):809–818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner JL, Amano T, Sutherland WJ, Clayton M, Peter A (2016) Individual and demographic consequences of reduced body condition following repeated exposure to high temperatures. Ecology 97(3):786–795

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ghana Statistical Service GSS (2022) 2021 population and housing census. Summary report of final results. GSS. Accra, Ghana

  • Hall JM, Warner DA (2017) Body size and reproduction of a non-native lizard are enhanced in an urban environment. Biol J Lin Soc 122(4):860–871

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardy LM, Crnkovic AC (2006) Diet of amphibians and reptiles from the Engare Ondare River Region of central Kenya, during the dry season. Afr J Herpetol 55(2):143–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris V (1964) The life of the rainbow lizard. London, England: Hutchinson Tropical Monographs

  • Isaksson C (2015) Urbanization, oxidative stress and inflammation: a question of evolving, acclimatizing or coping with urban environmental stress. Funct Ecol 29(7):913–923

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis LE (2015) Factors affecting body condition in a great crested newt Triturus cristatus population. Herpetol Bull 134:1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenik J, Hall JB (1976) Plant communities of the Accra plains, Ghana. Folia Geobotanica Et Phytotaxonomica 11(2):163–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kassouri Y (2021) Monitoring the spatial spillover effects of urbanization on water, built-up land and ecological footprints in sub-Saharan Africa. J Environ Manage 300:113690

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kechnebbou M, de Carvalho DL, da Silva PH, Silva DP (2021) Global warming drives range shifts in spiny-tailed lizards (Squamata: Agamidae: Uromastyx) in the African and Arabian deserts. J Arid Environ 191:104522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lannoo MJ, Stiles RM (2017) Effects of short-term climate variation on a long-lived frog. Copeia 105(4):726–733

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Le DTT, Rowley JJ, Tran DTA, Hoang HD (2020) The diet of a forest-dependent frog species, Odorrana morafkai (Anura: Ranidae), in relation to habitat disturbance. Amphib-Reptil 41(1):29–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehner PN (1996) Handbook of ethological methods. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 672

    Google Scholar 

  • Luiselli L (2006) Broad geographic, taxonomic and ecological patterns of interpopulation variation in the dietary habits of snakes. Web Ecol 6:2–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luiselli L, Segniagbeto GH, Rugiero L, Petrozzi F, Akani GC (2013) Effects of rainfall and geography on the comparative diets of eight rainbow lizard populations across Togo, Benin and Nigeria (West Africa). Amphib-Reptil 34(2):185–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luna Á, Romero-Vidal P, Hiraldo F, Tella JL (2018) Cities may save some threatened species but not their ecological functions. PeerJ 6:e4908

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mageski MM, Ferreira RB, Jesus PR, Teixeira RL (2018) Diet and fecundity of Physalaemus crombiei (Anura: Leptodactylidae) from a sandy coastal plain of southeastern Brazil. North West J Zool 14(2):247–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Malisch JL, Garland T, Claggett L, Stevenson L, Kohl EA, John-Alder HB (2020) Living on the edge: Glucocorticoid physiology in desert iguanas (Dipsosaurus dorsalis) is predicted by distance from an anthropogenic disturbance, body condition, and population density. Gen Comp Endocrinol 294:113468

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McDonald RI, Marcotullio PJ, Güneralp B (2013) Urbanization and global trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Urbanization, biodiversity and ecosystem services: Challenges and opportunities: a global assessment. pp 31–52

  • McDonnell MJ, Hahs AK (2009) Comparative ecology of cities and towns: past, present and future. Ecology of cities and towns: a comparative approach. pp 71–89

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McKinney ML (2008) Effects of urbanization on species richness: a review of plants and animals. Urban Ecosyst 11:161–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meillère A, Brischoux F, Parenteau C, Angelier F (2015) Influence of urbanization on body size, condition, and physiology in an urban exploiter: a multi-component approach. PLoS ONE 10(8):e0135685

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mpemba H, Fan Y, MacLeod KJ, Wen D, Jiang G (2019) The effect of novel and familiar predator cues on prey vigilance and foraging behaviors in the greater khingan mountains, Inner Mongolia, China. Appl Ecol Environ Res 17(4):8219–8234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newbold T, Hudson LN, Hill SL, Contu S, Lysenko I, Senior RA, Börger L, Bennett DJ, Choimes A, Collen B, Day J (2015) Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature 520:45–50

  • Ofori BY, Ewool JM, Asamoah RE, Adarkwah PA, Oduro D (2023) Diversity and composition of gastrointestinal helminths and gram-negative bacteria of the West African rainbow lizard (Agama picticauda) in a human-modified landscape: implications for conservation and zoonosis. Int J Zool 2023:9977489

  • Ofori BY, Martey P, Attuquayefio DK (2018) Observations of the African rainbow lizard (Agama picticauda Peters 1877) from Ghana feeding on bread. Herpetol Notes 11:955–957

    Google Scholar 

  • Ofori BY, Stow AJ, Baumgartner JB, Beaumont LJ (2017) Influence of adaptive capacity on the outcome of climate change vulnerability assessment. Sci Rep 7(1):12979

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ordoñez-Ifarraguerri A, Siliceo-Cantero HH, Suazo-Ortuño I, Alvarado-Díaz J (2017) Does a frog change its diet along a successional forest gradient? The case of the Shovel-nosed treefrog (Diaglena spatulata) in a tropical dry forest in western Mexico. J Herpetol 51(3):411–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peig J, Green AJ (2010) The paradigm of body condition: a critical reappraisal of current methods based on mass and length. Funct Ecol 24(6):1323–1332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peneaux C, Grainger R, Lermite F, Machovsky-Capuska GE, Gaston T, Griffin AS (2021) Detrimental effects of urbanization on the diet, health, and signal coloration of an ecologically successful alien bird. Sci Total Environ 796:148828

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pianka ER (1974) Niche overlap and diffuse competition. Proc Natl Acad Sci 71(5):2141–2145

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Pianka ER (1986) Ecology and natural history of desert lizards: analyses of the ecological niche and community structure. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pickett ST, Cadenasso ML, Grove JM, Boone CG, Groffman PM, Irwin E, Warren P (2011) Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress. J Environ Manage 92(3):331–362

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Porter EE, Forschner BR, Blair RB (2001) Woody vegetation and canopy fragmentation along a forest-to-urban gradient. Urban Ecosyst 5(2):131–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Potratz EJ, Brown JS, Gallo T, Anchor C, Santymire RM (2019) Effects of demography and urbanization on stress and body condition in urban white-tailed deer. Urban Ecosyst 22(5):807–816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pusack TJ, White JW, Tillotson HG, Kimbro DL, Stallings CD (2018) Size-dependent predation and intraspecific inhibition of an estuarine snail feeding on oysters. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 501:74–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putman BJ, Tippie ZA (2020) Big city living: a global meta-analysis reveals positive impact of urbanization on body size in lizards. Front Ecol Evol 8:580745

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pyke GH, Pulliam HR, Charnov EL (1977) Optimal foraging: a selective review of theory and tests. Q Rev Biol 52(2):137–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reading CJ (2004) The influence of body condition and prey availability on female breeding success in the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca Laurenti). J Zool 264(1):61–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronto W, Rakotondravony D (2019) Does forest loss affect body condition and individual ranging patterns in radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata, Shaw 1802)? Herpetol Notes 12:603–611

    Google Scholar 

  • Santamaría S, Enoksen CA, Olesen JM, Tavecchia G, Rotger A, Igual JM, Traveset A (2020) Diet composition of the lizard Podarcis lilfordi (Lacertidae) on 2 small islands: an individual-resource network approach. Curr Zool 66(1):39–49

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schoener TW, Janzen DH (1968) Notes on environmental determinants of tropical versus temperate size patterns. Am Nat 102:207–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoener TW (1971) Theory of feeding strategies. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 369–404

  • Scholz C, Firozpoor J, Kramer-Schadt S, Gras P, Schulze C, Kimmig SE, Ortmann S (2020) Individual dietary specialization in a generalist predator: a stable isotope analysis of urban and rural red foxes. Ecol Evol 10(16):8855–8870

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schulte-Hostedde AI, Zinner B, Millar JS, Hickling GJ (2005) Restitution of mass–size residuals: validating body condition indices. Ecology 86(1):155–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soanes K, Lentini PE (2019) When cities are the last chance for saving species. Front Ecol Environ 17:225–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stamps J, Tanaka S, Krishnan VV (1981) The relationship between selectivity and food abundance in a juvenile lizard. Ecology 62(4):1079–1092

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephens DW, Krebs JR (1986) Foraging theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun L, Chen J, Li Q, Huang D (2020) Dramatic uneven urbanization of large cities throughout the world in recent decades. Nat Commun 11(1):1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan WC, Herrel A, Measey J (2020) Dietary observations of four southern African agamid lizards (Agamidae). Herpetol Conserv Biol 15(1):69–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Teyssier A, Matthysen E, Hudin NS, De Neve L, White J, Lens L (2020) Diet contributes to urban-induced alterations in gut microbiota: experimental evidence from a wild passerine. Proc R Soc B 287(1920):20192182

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Thawley CJ, Moniz HA, Merritt AJ, Battles AC, Michaelides SN, Kolbe JJ (2019) Urbanization affects body size and parasitism but not thermal preferences in Anolis lizards. J Urban Ecol 5(1):juy031

  • Vidal A, Iturriaga M, Mancina CA, Cézilly F (2022) Differences in sex ratio, tail autotomy, body size and body condition between suburban and forest populations of the Cuban endemic lizard Anolis Homolechis. Urban Ecosyst 25(6):1711–1723

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner EE (1974) The fish size, prey size, handling time relation in several sunfishes and some implications. J Fish 31(9):1531–1536

    Google Scholar 

  • Winchell KM, Briggs D, Revell LJ (2019) The perils of city life: patterns of injury and fluctuating asymmetry in urban lizards. Biol J Lin Soc 126(2):276–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe AK, Bateman PW, Fleming PA (2018) Does urbanization influence the diet of a large snake? Curr Zool 64(3):311–318

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yeboah S (1982) Observations on territory of the rainbow lizard, Agama Agama. Afr J Ecol 20(3):187–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank all the research assistants who supported this research, particularly Helen Sedem Addom.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Biology and Conservation Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana

    Benjamin Y. Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Jones K. Quartey & Daniel K. Attuquayefio

  2. African Regional Postgraduate Program in Insect Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana

    Roger S. Anderson

Authors
  1. Benjamin Y. Ofori
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Princess Martey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Roger S. Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. John B. Mensah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jones K. Quartey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Daniel K. Attuquayefio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey. Data curation: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Roger S. Anderson, Jones K. Quartey, Daniel K. Attuquayefio. Formal analysis: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Jones K. Quartey. Investigation: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey. Methodology: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey. Project administration: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Jones K. Quartey. Resources: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey. Software: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Jones K. Quartey. Supervision: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Daniel K. Attuquayefio. Validation: Benjamin Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Jones K. Quartey. Visualization: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah Jones K. Quartey. Writing – original draft: Benjamin Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Roger S. Anderson, Jones K. Quartey1, and Daniel K. Attuquayefio. Writing – review & editing: Benjamin Yeboah Ofori, Princess Martey, John B. Mensah, Roger S. Anderson, Jones K. Quartey, Daniel K. Attuquayefio.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benjamin Y. Ofori.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ofori, B.Y., Martey, P., Anderson, R.S. et al. The costs of living in the city: influence of urbanization on the trophic niche and body condition of the African rainbow lizard Agama picticauda. Eur J Wildl Res 69, 114 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-023-01743-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-023-01743-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation