Author:
Civantos Emilio,Martín José,López Pilar
Abstract
We present a field study designed to characterize microhabitat selection in a population of Trogonophis wiegmanni, a fossorial reptile that is the only representative of the family Trogonophidae in North Africa. Our results show that T. wiegmanni used microhabitats in proportion to their availability with one exception: they showed a preference for areas with 5–10 cm high vegetation cover (i.e., perennial bushes and scrubs such as Atriplex halimus, Lycium intricatum, and Suaeda vera, and herbs such as Lavatera mauritanica and Malva parviflora). They avoided areas with abundant small stones, indicating that at least some structural characteristics of the microhabitat occupied by amphis bae nians seem to be different from those available. Our data also show that T. wiegmanni selected thinner and wider rocks than those rocks found randomly. Such choices could have important thermoregulatory consequences.
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Subject
Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Cited by
23 articles.
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