Register      Login
Wildlife Research Wildlife Research Society
Ecology, management and conservation in natural and modified habitats
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > WR > WR06141
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 34(5)

Does vegetation cover affect the rate of capture of ground-active lizards in pitfall traps?

Christine A. Schlesinger
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

Faculty of Education, Health and Science, Charles Darwin University, Alice Springs, NT 0871, Australia. Address for correspondence: PO Box 795, Alice Springs, NT 0871, Australia. Email: christine.schlesinger@cdu.edu.au

Wildlife Research 34(5) 359-365 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR06141
Submitted: 20 October 2006  Accepted: 3 July 2007   Published: 6 September 2007

Abstract

Pitfall traps are commonly used to capture terrestrial vertebrates, but it is not known whether differences in vegetation structure affect the efficiency of these traps. Studies that investigate the effects of fire, grazing or vegetation rehabilitation on faunal populations usually compare sites that differ in vegetation structure and the validity of using pitfall traps to sample populations under these circumstances is open to question. This study tests whether vegetation structure affects the rate at which lizards are captured in pitfall traps by cutting ground vegetation in a controlled experiment conducted in field enclosures. The study was undertaken in an area of mulga (Acacia aneura) shrubland in central Australia. Ground cover, consisting of grasses and forbs, was reduced from ~27% to 10% in treatment enclosures. These levels of cover correspond broadly to the range of ground covers encountered in this habitat, including areas with high and low levels of grazing. No difference was detected in the rate at which lizards were captured in enclosures where grass was cut compared with the control enclosures or rates of capture before grass was cut. These results indicate that pitfall trapping is a valid technique for comparing lizard populations in arid mulga shrublands within the range of vegetation covers used in this study, including areas that are subject to different levels of grazing.


Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems for providing office space and logistic support throughout the field work stage of this project. I thank Kevin Jones, Tim Acres and Stephanie Creed who assisted with installation and dismantling of the field enclosures. Craig James, Steve Morton and Keith Christian gave valuable advice during the study and comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Gary Prior kindly gave permission to work on Hamilton Downs Station. I thank Michael Craig for providing access to unpublished data. The project was carried out under a Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory Licence for Scientific Research Permit No. A/93/18, A/94/18 and A/95/21 and Northern Territory University Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee project approval code 930416. Funding was provided by a CSIRO/University collaborative research grant and the author was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Research Award.


References

Andersen, A. N. (1991). Sampling communities of ground-foraging ants: pitfall catches compared with quadrat counts in an Australian tropical savanna. Australian Journal of Ecology 16, 273–279.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Caughley G. (1977). ‘Analysis of Vertebrate Populations.’ (John Wiley & Sons: Brisbane.)

Christian, K. , Tracy, C. R. , and Porter, W. P. (1983). Seasonal shifts in body temperature and use of microhabitats by Galapagos land iguanas (Conolophus pallidus). Ecology 64, 463–468.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Heatwole H. (1977). Habitat selection in reptiles. In ‘Biology of the Reptilia. Vol. 7: Ecology and Behavior’. (Eds C. Gans and D. W. Tinkle.) pp. 137–155. (Academic Press: London.)

Hobbs, T. J. , and James, C. D. (1999). Influence of shade covers on pitfall trap temperatures and capture success of reptiles and small mammals in arid Australia. Wildlife Research 26, 341–349.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | James C. D. (1994). Spatial and temporal variation in structure of a diverse lizard assemblage in arid Australia. In ‘Lizard Ecology. Historical and Experimental Perspectives’. (Eds L. J. Vitt and E. R. Pianka.) pp. 287–318. (Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.)

James, C. (2003). Response of vertebrates to fenceline contrasts in grazing intensity in semi-arid woodlands of eastern Australia. Austral Ecology 28, 137–151.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Lendon C., and Ross M. A. (1978). Vegetation. In ‘The Physical and Biological Features of Kunoth Paddock in Central Australia. Division of Land Resources Management Technical Paper No. 4’. (Ed. W. A. Low.) pp. 66–90. (CSIRO: Melbourne.)

Letnic, M. , Dickman, C. R. , Tischler, M. K. , Tamayo, B. , and Beh, C. L. (2004). The responses of small mammals and lizards to post-fire succession and rainfall in arid Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 59, 85–114.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Melbourne B. A. (1993). The assessment of insect biodiversity, a case study: ants and carabid beetles in grasslands of the A.C.T. B.Sc.(Honours) Thesis. (Australian National University: Canberra.)

Morton, S. R. , Gillam, M. W. , Jones, K. R. , and Fleming, M. R. (1988). Relative efficiency of different pit-trap systems for sampling reptiles in spinifex grasslands. Australian Wildlife Research 15, 571–577.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Schlesinger C. (1999). The effect of a temporally variable environment and grazing on lizards in mulga (Acacia aneura) shrublands of central Australia. Ph.D. Thesis, Northern Territory University, Darwin.

Sexton, O. J. (1958). The relationship between the habitat preferences of hatchling Chelydra serpentina and the physical structure of the vegetation. Ecology 39, 751–754.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Sexton, O. J. (1959). Spatial and temporal movements of a population of the painted turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata (Agassiz). Ecological Monographs 29, 113–140.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Stark, R. C. , Fox, S. F. , and Leslie, D. M. (2005). Male Texas horned lizards increase daily movements and area covered in spring: a mate searching strategy? Journal of Herpetology 39, 169–173.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Thompson, S. A. , Thompson, G. G. , and Withers, P. C. (2005). Influence of pit-trap type on the interpretation of fauna diversity. Wildlife Research 32, 131–137.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Topping, C. J. , and Sunderland, K. D. (1992). Limitations to the use of pitfall traps in ecological studies exemplified by a study of spiders in a field of winter wheat. Journal of Applied Ecology 29, 485–491.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Umetsu, F. , Naxara, L. , and Pardini, R. (2006). Evaluating the efficiency of pitfall traps for sampling small mammals in the neotropics. Journal of Mammalogy 87, 757–765.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Waldschmidt, S. , and Tracy, C. R. (1983). Interactions between a lizard and its thermal environment: implications for sprint performance and space utilization in the lizard Uta stansburiana. Ecology 64, 476–484.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |