Effects of sensory mode in prey discrimination and predatory behaviour of rock lizards

Abstract

Abstract An essential part of foraging ecology is to understand the processes of detection, recognition and discrimination of prey, as well as the sensorial modalities involved. Often, predators do not rely on a single sensory system but on multiple interacting senses. Specifically, lizards mainly use vision and vomerolfaction for prey pursuit. Here, we used an experimental approach to study how the Carpetan rock lizard, Iberolacerta cyreni, responds to different types of stimuli (chemical, visual, or both combined) from two prey species. The number of individuals approaching the prey and the number of attacks differed between treatments, however, we did not find differences in latency time, number of individuals attacking the prey or number of tongue flicks. Our results suggested that visual cues combined with chemical stimuli enhanced detection of both prey species and that prey discrimination occurred posteriorly and independently of using any or both types of stimuli.