Population ecology of a critically endangered gecko, endemic to north-eastern of Argentina

COURTIS, AZUL; CAJADE, RODRIGO; PIÑEIRO, JOSÉ MIGUEL; HERNANDO, ALEJANDRA; SANTORO, SIMONE; MARANGONI, FEDERICO

doi:10.1590/0001-3765202220200388

person AZUL COURTIS

fieldwork · data analysis · Writing the article

schoolUniversidad Nacional del Nordeste (FaCENA-UNNE), Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, Argentina

0000-0002-9121-0956

person RODRIGO CAJADE

Study design · fieldwork · Writing the article

schoolUniversidad Nacional del Nordeste (FaCENA-UNNE), Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolFundación Amado Bonpland, San Juan 1182 – 3400, Corrientes, Argentina

0000-0003-3614-2054

person JOSÉ MIGUEL PIÑEIRO

fieldwork · image edition

schoolUniversidad Nacional del Nordeste (FaCENA-UNNE), Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolFundación Amado Bonpland, San Juan 1182 – 3400, Corrientes, Argentina

0000-0003-0270-2244

person ALEJANDRA HERNANDO

Writing the article

schoolConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolFundación Amado Bonpland, San Juan 1182 – 3400, Corrientes, Argentina

0000-0002-0321-8289

person SIMONE SANTORO

data analysis · Writing the article

schoolUniversidad Pablo de Olavide, Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Utrera, Km 1 – 41013, Sevilla, España

0000-0003-0986-3278

person FEDERICO MARANGONI

Study design · fieldwork · data analysis · Writing the article

schoolUniversidad Nacional del Nordeste (FaCENA-UNNE), Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura, Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, ArgentinaschoolConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Libertad 5470 – 3400, Corrientes, Argentina

0000-0001-6242-9222

Correspondence to: Azul Courtis E-mail:
azulcourtis@gmail.com

Figures (4)
Tables (3)

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Figure 1 Adult of Homonota taragui.

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Figure 2 Rocky environments of the hills of Paraje Tres Cerros (a) where the microhabitat of Homonota taragui is located (b). This microhabitat is formed by large blocks of rocks where smaller rocks are supported (rock-rock substrate).

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Figure 3 Distribution map of Homonota taragui. Location of the Paraje Tres Cerros, Corrientes province, Argentina. Details of the hills Nazareno (a), Capará (b), and Chico (c).

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Figure 4 Monthly percentage of individuals of Homonota taragui marked (black bars)and recaptured (striped bars) in Paraje Tres Cerros during April 2015 and April 2017 (n).

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Table Descriptive statistic of morphological variables studied in adults of Homonota taragui. Body mass (BM) in grams. Snout-vent length (SVL). Vent Width (VW). Base of the tail width (BTW). Head width (HW). Head length (HL). Head height (HH). Trunk length (TrL). Humerus length (HuL). Femur length (FL), in millimeters. NS: P value not significant.

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Table II Survival models and associated biological hypotheses for Homonota taragui in Paraje Tres Cerros. The most supported model is in bold. Model notation: Φ, apparent survival probability; p, recapture probability, sex, sex (females and males); pop, population (Chico, Nazareno); a2, two-class age effect (different probability in the 1^st vs the subsequent intervals after the first capture); +, additive effect; *, non-additive effect. Table notation: Dev, deviance of the model; NP, number of identifiable parameters; AIC _c, Akaike information criterion value corrected for small sample size; ΔAIC _c, difference in AIC values between the current model and that with the lowest AIC value.

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Table III Real estimates of apparent survival and recaptures probabilities of Homonota taragui corresponding to the most parsimonious model (Φ_a2+p p_s+p). SE, standard error; CI, confidence intervals (95%).

	Chico hill (n=61)				Nazareno hill (n=56)			Males (n=70)				Females (n=45)
	Median ±SD	Min	Max	P value	Median ±SD	Min	Max	Median ±SD	Min	Max	P value	Median ±SD	Min	Max
BM	1.59± 0.31	0.76	2.14	NS	1.72± 0.22	1.17	2.20	1.60± 0.23	1.07	2.20	NS	1.73± 0.32	0.76	2.18
SVL	37.55±2.30	32.40	41.74	NS	37.63± 2.01	32.74	41.42	37.55± 2.10	32.40	41.74	NS	37.86± 2.16	32.56	41.66
VW	3.69± 0.37	3.04	4.50	0.02	3.91± 0.41	3.08	5.09	3.70± 0.33	3.10	4.63	NS	3.88± 0.49	3.04	5.09
BTW	4.34± 0.46	3.35	5.42	0.04	4.59± 0.47	3.54	5.50	4.48± 0.41	3.55	5.44	NS	4.43± 0.54	3.35	5.50
HW	7.57± 0.46	6.63	8.77	NS	7.78± 0.41	5.85	8.52	7.73± 0.41	6.63	8.77	0.02	7.60± 0.52	5.85	8.56
HL	9.66± 0.77	5.51	10.79	NS	9.92± 0.45	8.62	10.95	9.85± 0.72	5.51	10.72	NS	9.85± 0.53	8.48	10.95
HH	4.70± 0.49	3.46	7.09	NS	4.79± 0.44	3.99	5.68	4.76± 0.51	3.46	7.09	NS	4.71± 0.42	3.75	5.68
TrL	17.71± 1.16	14.81	21.09	NS	17.54± 1.75	11.70	22.59	17.42± 1.24	13.54	21.10	NS	17.92± 1.75	11.70	22.59
HuL	4.10± 0.43	3.31	5.34	NS	4.04± 0.40	3.06	4.81	3.98± 0.40	3.06	5.34	NS	4.22± 0.39	3.41	4.98
FL	5.88± 0.58	4.57	7.10	NS	5.88± 0.59	4.57	7.10	5.90± 0.51	4.71	7.09	NS	5.98± 0.67	4.57	7.10

Model	Dev	NP	AIC_c	ΔAI_Cc	Biological hypothesis
Φ_a2+pop p_sex+pop	449.7857	6	570.0630	0.0000	Survival depended on the additive effect of age and population; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2 p_sex+pop	453.1552	5	571.2995	1.2365	Age effect on survival; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2*_pop p_s+pop	449.2684	7	571.7020	1.6390	Survival depended on interaction of age effect and population; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2+sex+pop p_sex+pop	449.3548	7	571.7885	1.7255	Additive effect of age, sex and population for survival; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2+sex p_sex+pop	453.0584	6	573.3357	3.2727	Survival depended on additive effect of age and sex; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2*_sex p_sex+pop	451.7430	7	574.1766	4.1136	Survival depended on interaction between age effect and sex; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2_sex_pop p_sex+pop	446.8837	11	578.1851	8.1221	Survival depended on the interaction of age effect, sex and population; additive effect of sex and population for recapture.
Φ_a2_sex_pop p_pop	449.4837	10	578.5310	8.4680	Survival depended on the interaction of age effect, sex and population; Recapture depended of population.
Φ_a2_sex_pop p_sex*_pop	446.8737	12	580.4547	10.3917	Survival depended on the interaction of age effect, sex and population; recapture varied whit the interaction of sex and population.
Φ_a2_sex_pop p.	463.3038	9	590.1221	20.0591	Survival depended on the interaction of age effect, sex and population; constant recapture.
Φ_a2_sex_pop p_sex	462.6400	10	591.6873	21.6243	Survival depended on the interaction of age effect, sex and population; recapture depended on sex.

	Estimate	SE	CI
Apparent survival
Chico population	0.885	0.030	0.813-0.932
Nazareno population	0.943	0.026	0.865- 0.977
Recapture probabilities
Females Chico population	0.187	0.040	0.121-0.278
Females Nazareno population	0.051	0.019	0.024-0.104
Males Chico population	0.262	0.053	0.172- 0.378
Males Nazareno population	0.076	0.024	0.041-0.138

Population ecology of a critically endangered gecko, endemic to north-eastern of Argentina

Abstract