Influence of elevation on the thermoregulation of two sympatric lizards

Abstract

The effect of elevation on thermoregulation strategy of the skink, Leiolopisma maccanni, and the gecko, Hoplodactylus maculatus, was studied during late summer, in Otago, New Zealand, where the two species are sympatric. Air temperature, operative temperature, and basking behaviour were studied at two sites of different elevation with similar mean air temperatures. At the higher elevation (1100 m), L. maccanni used microhabitats with lower operative temperatures, and increased their use of non-basking microhabitat, when compared with skinks at the lower elevation site (200 m). Lower operative temperature and use of non-basking habitat suggest that a physiological adjustment was observed in L. maccanni at higher elevations. H. maculatus did not display any shifts in microhabitat use, nor were there any significant differences in thermoregulation between the two elevations. Nocturnal activity and thigmothermy restrict H. maculatus to a thermal conforming strategy. © 1994 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.