Sleeping site fidelity in three neotropical species of herpetofauna

OLIVER THOMAS; GABRIELA GISELLE MANGINI; JUAN GUALINGA

Herpetological Bulletin

British Herpetological Society

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2021

1473-0928

All animal species studied to date have shown sleep or sleep-like behaviour (Tobler, 2000). Sleep aids in a variety of processes including recovery of cellular and endocrine systems through to learning, memory and energy conservation. Sleeping site selection must play an important role in obtaining the benefits of sleep while avoiding predation. It is likely influenced by microhabitat preferences, the need for protection from predators or exposure, and remaining within territories to avoid competition. Thus, once selected, a sleeping site may be maintained through days, weeks, or longer, to retain these benefits over time. However, to date studies of sleeping site preferences or site fidelity have focused mainly on endotherms (mammals and birds) rather than ectotherms such as reptiles, amphibians, fishes or invertebrates. To gather data, we undertook day and night-time visual encounter surveys between June and August 2019 in the the Sani Reserve, Sucumbíos, Ecuador. We report and discuss the sleeping behavior, sleeping site features and sleeping site fidelity for two reptiles and one amphibian. We recorded 2 sleeping sites for Enyalioides laticeps with the individual returning to the same site for 7 days; 1 sleeping site for Anolis fuscoauratus with the individual returning to the same site each night for 13 days, and 1 sleeping site for Rhinella margaritifera where we observed the same individual returning to the same site for 5 days. The information gathered here for these three species is a first step in understanding what sleeping sites they select and the degree of site fidelity they show. Further detailed work is needed to understand how these species select sleeping sites and the characteristics of sites to which they would show fidelity.