The Burrowing Ecology of a Desert Ground Gecko

Y. Bogin, A. Bouskila and Y. L. Werner (Hebrew Univ.)

Predator avoidance by nocturnal animals has been frequently studied, but because many of these animals use shelters, we need to understand also the measures taken to avoid predation that may occur in the burrow. Stenodactylus doriae is a nocturnal gecko that retreats during its inactivity hours to burrows dug by itself or by other geckos. The geckos block the entrance of the burrow in a unique way, obliterating the burrow entrance with tail sweeps. The investigators hypothesize that this behavior has evolved to reduce the chances that predators will discoverthe burrow. In this study Yael Bogin (an M. Sc. student at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem) measured the rate of burrow abandoning and found that the geckos are very sensitive to any disturbance near the burrow. Inone of her experiments, the application of scent of a snake at the entrance of the burrow caused all the geckos to desert the burrow upon their return to the treated burrows, while only 25% of the control burrows were deserted. The documentation of burrow locations and use have shown that the geckos prefer to dig their shelters far from shrubs and Yael will test now the hypothesis that by avoiding the proximity of shrubs the geckos reduce the risk that predators will randomly dig in the sand and discover the burrow.

 

S. doriae	(photo: A. Bouskila)