Daily activity patterns and perch height utilization in pre-breeding season by forest calotes, calotes rouxii (Sauria: Agamidae) in the sacred grove of the northern western ghats

Abstract

Although, the Forest Calotes Calotes rouxii is the most common and endemic species of lizard inhabiting the Western Ghats, information on its ecology is remain scarce. In order to better understanding of life history of C. rouxii, we investigated its pre breeding activity patterns and microhabitat utilization in a small sacred grove (~0.65 ha) of the northern Western Ghats. Calotes rouxii showed a unimodal activity pattern, peak activity period was observed at late morning (11.00-12.30 h) and afternoon (13.00-15.45 h). The activity patterns of lizards involved basking and resting at early morning period. Once they attained optimum body temperature at peak period activities such as moving, social displays and foraging were performed. In late afternoon all activities were decreased and they retreat to their refuge sites. Sex specific microhabitat segregation was detected; males occupied higher perches than females. The males encounter during study period were positively correlated with temperature while negatively correlated with humidity, however females encountered were not correlated with humidity and temperature.