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The use of faecal counts for estimating populations of wall lizards ( Podarcis muralis )
Author(s) -
AVERY R. A.,
PERKINS C. M.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1989.tb02475.x
Subject(s) - biology , lizard , ecology , population , zoology , pellet , population density , demography , sociology
Measurements of the rates at which droppings of wall lizards ( Podarcis muralis ) on Jersey appeared in, and disappeared from, the environment made it possible to formulate a simple mathematical model for the dynamics of faecal pellet populations. The model shows how, for a given lizard population, the number of droppings changes with time according to weather conditions. It was used to estimate lizard densities at a number of sites from daily pellet counts. There were significant differences in the densities of lizards between sites; possible reasons for these are discussed.