Williams Baptist College

Abstract The extension and retraction of the throat fan or dewlap is one of the most conspicuous aspects of the display behavior of male Anolis lizards. We explored aspects of the functional significance of displaying the male's dewlap by surgically preventing male brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) from extending their dewlaps and comparing their behavior with controls that could extend their dewlaps. In 30-min laboratory contests, we compared the display behavior of untreated males paired with either experimental males or with sham-treated control males. In a subsequent field study, we tested what effect displaying the dewlap has on male residence time (days males remained at a site), visibility (number of sightings of males), maximum distance moved (from site of release), home range size, and body size during 18 censuses over a 47-day period. Untreated males paired with the two types of stimulus males in the laboratory study did not differ significantly in latency to display, number of dewlap extensions, num...