Title:

Ecology and sexual selection of the Common Barking Gecko (Ptenopus garrulus)

Author(s):
Publication Year:
2005
Abstract:

I investigated three mechanisms (endurance rivalry, contest competition, and mate choice) of sexual selection and the influence of multiple signals on intrasexual and intersexual encounters in the common barking gecko (Ptenopus garrulus). Aspects of the ecology of barking geckos were also studied to facilitate the investigation of sexual selection. Barking geckos exhibited sexual size dimorphism in relation to head size, with males having wider heads. No differences in diet or size of prey ingested were observed between the sexes, indicating that niche divergence was not occurring. Therefore, the difference in head width was best explained by sexual selection (male contest competition). Barking gecko diet was dominated by termites by number and volume. The peak reproductive season was in October for both sexes.

Place:
Johannesburg
Publisher:
Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand
Type:
PhD Thesis
Item Type:
Thesis
Language:
en

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