Aspects of the ecology and behaviour of a potential urban exploiter, the southern tree agama, Acanthocercus atricollis

Urbanisation has caused significant alterations to ecosystems, generally resulting in decreased biodiversity. However, certain animal species persist and thrive in urban environments by making use of available opportunities, anthropogenic resources, infrastructure and increased ambient and surface temperatures. These species are known as urban exploiters. We investigated the southern tree agama, Acanthocercus atricollis population trends, habitat use and basking and shading behaviour in a high-density urban human-populated housing metropolitan area in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We marked individual southern tree agamas to determine habitat use and territories (n = 37). The southern tree agama population density was high, and they had established set territories here. We conducted monthly observations (February 2017-July 2017 and March 2018-February 2019) to determine the degree of basking and shading behaviour with season and time of day and location. Southern tree agamas invested more than half of their time (57%) in basking behaviour during the overall observational study period. Basking and shading patterns changed with season and time of day. The number of basking southern tree agamas decreased during winter and basking commenced later. We found that increased anthropogenic infrastructure and supplementary food availability, decreased predators, and basking opportunities could have had an influence on their population increase and that the southern tree agama is a potential urban exploiter.

Automated summary

Urbanisation has led to significant changes in ecosystems, causing decreased biodiversity. Certain animal species, known as urban exploiters, thrive in urban environments by utilizing available opportunities and resources. The study on southern tree agamas in a high-density urban area in South Africa found that these lizards have adapted well to urban environments, with high population density and a reliance on basking behavior for adaptation.