Diet of the exotic Madeiran wall lizard: first insights into trophic interactions in an Atlantic seabird sanctuary

By

Neves, Verónica
Rund, Dorothee
Pinho, Catarina J.
Vasconcelos, Raquel
Bustamante, Paco
Quillfeldt, Petra

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022-6-14

Original Publication

Herpetozoa

Volume

35

Pages

107--113

Subjects

Azores , Conservation , Macaronesia , Next-Generation Sequencing , Praia Islet , stable isotopes

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e82096

 

Abstract

The Madeiran wall lizard Teira dugesii is a relatively new species to the Azores Archipelago, where it was accidentally introduced about 150 to 200 years ago. This lacertid quickly became naturalised and now occurs in all the nine main islands of the Azores. At Praia Islet, off Graciosa Island, the Madeiran wall lizard was recently observed preying on chicks of the threatened Monteiro’s storm-petrel Hydrobates monteiroi. To characterise the lizards’ trophic niche, we conducted a study of the diet of the Madeiran wall lizard at Praia using stable isotope analysis and next-generation sequencing. Our results indicate that the Madeiran wall lizard has a varied diet, consisting of at least 23 invertebrate taxa, 17 plant species, and occasionally, birds (two species detected, including storm-petrels). Marine derived food items were present in few samples, and it is vital to monitor the trophic interactions at Praia Islet to ensure the conservation of this threatened storm-petrel.