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Turkish Journal of Zoology

Author ORCID Identifier

KATARINA LJUBISAVLJEVIĆ: 0000-0003-4389-2355

NATAŠA TOMAŠEVIĆ KOLAROV: 0000-0002-4785-7170

ALEKSANDAR UROŠEVIĆ: 0000-0003-1158-5537

LIDIJA LEKOVIĆ: 0009-0005-4039-6438

SNEŽANA VUKSANOVIĆ: 0000-0003-2735-8101

TANJA VUKOV: 0000-0002-2365-8679

DOI

10.55730/1300-0179.3185

Abstract

We studied the daily activity patterns of Dinarolacerta rock lizards, endemic to the Dinaric mountains of the Western Balkans, during the summer season. The study was conducted in Montenegro at four sites for D. mosorensis and three sites for D. montenegrina. The air temperature at which the lizards were observed varied significantly both within and between species and decreased with altitude, while the temperature of the rocky ground was more stable and higher than air temperature at each study site. Males and females of both species displayed similar activity patterns, while immatures tended to be active at the time when the most of adults were basking. In the single low-altitude population of D. mosorensis in the river canyon, all adults were observed at midday, and majority of them were active, whereas in all other mountain populations studied, adults were observed both in the morning and at midday and majority of them were basking. Dinarolacerta lizards showed a unimodal pattern of daily activity. Individuals were most frequently observed in the morning and midday and rarely in the afternoon. They mostly stayed in full sun on the slope or on top of the rock, and only a small percentage was inactive (hiding in a crevice or in the shade). The exposure of the occupied rock surface was very heterogeneous within the samples for both adults and immatures. There were no consistent differences in daily activity patterns between two Dinarolacerta species, and the differences found between some populations both within and between species were more likely to reflect some microclimatic and microhabitat characteristics at specific sites.

Keywords

Dinarolacerta montenegrina, Dinarolacerta mosorensis, high-altitude, Montenegro, Thermoregulatory behaviour

First Page

310

Last Page

317

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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