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Behavioral repertoire of the Madeiran wall lizard, Teira dugesii (Sauria: Lacertidae) in wildlife conditions: Behavioral repertoire of the Teira dugesii

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  • José Tomás Pereira Câmara,
  • Mafalda Abreu,
  • Mariana Soares,
  • José Jesus
José Tomás Pereira Câmara
Universidade da Madeira
Mafalda Abreu
Coleção de Insetos da Universidade da Madeira (UMACI), Portugal
Mariana Soares
Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, Funchal, Portugal 2CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Pólo dos Açores - Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias, Universidade dos Açores, 9500-321, Portugal 3BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal 4Madeira Botanical Group (GBM), Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, 9020-105, Funchal, Portugal
José Jesus
1Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, Funchal, Portugal 2Madeira Botanical Group (GBM), Faculdade de Ciências da Vida, Universidade da Madeira, 9020-105, Funchal, Portugal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-17773

Published 2025-11-19

Keywords

  • Behavior,
  • Madeira Island,
  • Lacertidae,
  • Macaronesia

How to Cite

Pereira Câmara, J. T., Abreu, M., Soares, M., & Jesus, J. (2025). Behavioral repertoire of the Madeiran wall lizard, Teira dugesii (Sauria: Lacertidae) in wildlife conditions: Behavioral repertoire of the Teira dugesii. Acta Herpetologica. https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-17773

Copyright (c) 2025 José Tomás Pereira Câmara, Mafalda Abreu, Mariana Soares, José Jesus

Creative Commons License

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

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Abstract

The behavioral repertoire of the Madeiran wall lizard, Teira dugesii, was compiled through 67 hours of direct field observations conducted between July 2021 and August 2024 at seven locations along the south coast of Madeira Island. Additionally, photographs and field notebook annotations were used to support behavioral descriptions. A total of 74 distinct behaviors were recorded and categorized into five groups: maintenance, aggression and defense, feeding, mobility, and reproduction. Observations covered the species’ daily activity period, from 09:00 to 18:00, primarily during the summer months. Maintenance behaviors accounted for the majority of records (83.89%), followed by mobility (9.41%), feeding (3.42%), aggression and defense (2.71%), and reproduction (1.94%). This study provides new insights into the diverse and complex behavioral repertoire of T. dugesii under natural conditions.

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