Age-Specific Shift in the Diet of the Crevice Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus poinsetti in Southwestern New Mexico

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The diet of the crevice spiny lizard was principally carnivorous early in life (94.1% arthropodan by volume in juveniles; 80.1% in young adults) and substantially herbivorous later in life (41.7% and 22.3% plant material in older adults collected in early summer and late summer-autumn periods, respectively). Large adults consumed an increased volume of large insects which appeared after summer rains, apparently at the expense of vegetarian tendencies. The diet shift with age is likely an adaptation against the energetically expensive task of capturing small prey by these relatively large-bodied lizards.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: