CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Changes in activity and behavior are among the strategies that ectotherms might use to cope with global warming. Activity patterns of lizards depend on habitat thermal quality. Moreover, increasing temperature might influence social behavior by inducing changes in the time allocated to conspecific interactions. We hypothesized that at temperatures associated with global warming, Tropidurus spinulosus would adjust the activity pattern and social interactions, like mate choice, as a coping mechanism. We combined a field study of activity and social behavior with an experimental study of intersexual interactions. Our results indicated that an environment that approximates a temperature increment according to an extreme warming forced a change in activity, displacement and conspecific interaction which closely followed the habitat thermal quality. Moreover, time allocated to sexual interactions decreased whereas social display frequency was less affected. In conclusion, temperature increment might force individuals to spend more time in cold refuges and to modify their daily activity pattern, also affecting social and sexual selection dynamics.