Abstract
Urbanisation creates novel environments, not only through (abiotic) microhabitat alterations, but also due to changes in (biotic) inter- and intraspecific interactions. Where sheltering sites in urban habitats are limited, intra or interspecific interactions may increase, resulting in increased competition and changes in predation risk in urban areas compared to natural habitats. The Knysna Dwarf Chameleon (Bradypodion damaranum) occurs in both urban and natural settings, is extremely ornamented, and individuals have been observed with multiple wounds and scars. We therefore hypothesised that urban populations may have adapted to the physical features of urban habitats, and that this would be detectable through ornament size and bite force, as well as the presence of scarring. We quantified these traits from urban and natural populations from two separate localities (the towns of George and Knysna, South Africa). Our results showed that female and male B. damaranum from urban populations had a higher number of injuries and that urban males were more likely to be injured than males from natural habitats. Bite force was only recorded at one locality (Knysna), but both sexes in urban habitats had higher bite force when accounting for casque height as compared to those from the natural habitats. Urban chameleons also had less developed ornamentation but wider and/or higher heads compared to populations in natural habitats. Urban habitats had significantly lower tree density than natural habitats, and this may be a factor in driving the morphological differences between populations, whereby reduced ornamentation confers an advantage for remaining cryptic to predators in the open habitat but compromises the ability for signalling conspecifics with encounters escalating to physical contests.
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Data Availability
Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Matthew Adair, Jessica da Silva, Azraa Ebrahim, Juan-Jacques Forgus, Devon Main, Jody Taft, and Bettine van Vuuren for assistance with field work and logistics, and Colleen Seymour for assistance with statical approaches and R coding. Research was funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa, Dimensions of Biodiversity Program (Grant no. 136381). Permission to carry out this work was granted by CapeNature (CN44-59-11927) and South African National Parks under a research agreement. Ethical clearance was granted by the University of Witwatersrand (2019/10/56/B) and the University of Johannesburg (2019/10/10).
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Research was funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa, Dimensions of Biodiversity Program (Grant no. 136381).
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Funding for this study was generated by Krystal A. Tolley and Graham J. Alexander. All authors contributed to the study conception and design, and carried out field work for data collection. Melissa A. Petford and Krystal A. Tolley carried out analyses and wrote the initial drafts of the manuscript, and all authors contributed to the text, and edited all versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Petford, M.A., Herrel, A., Alexander, G.J. et al. Differences between urban and natural populations of dwarf chameleons (Bradypodion damaranum): a case of urban warfare?. Urban Ecosyst 27, 577–589 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-023-01474-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-023-01474-1