Earthsky Interviews
Private: Lizards do push-ups
February 29, 2008 - Biodiversity
(Credit: Benjamint444. Some rights reserved.
See a hi-res version of this image.)
When a male Jacky Dragon confronts a competitor, he begins the showdown with a flick of his tail, followed by several arm waves and a series of rapid push-ups. Earth & Sky spoke to Daniel Van Dyk, a Ph.D. student at Macquarie University in Australia.
Daniel Van Dyk: _By pushing up very very quickly, they’re basically showing how much they can lift – how much power they have – which is clearly important in a fight because they try and bite each other. So knowing how strong your opponent is is going to have a big impact on whether you think you can beat them in a fight or not._
In the lab, Van Dyk created an animated version of a Jacky Dragon, using the same technology used to create movies like Finding Nemo. Then he put a real lizard in front of the animation on a TV monitor. In some cases, the lizard would try to attack the animation. And beforehand, it showed off to the TV with its push-up routine.
These push-ups are the lizard version of guys in a gym, comparing how much they can bench press.
“Dragon Wars”:http://www.pr.mq.edu.au/macnews/july01/dragon.htm from Macquarie University News
Daniel Van Dyk also said, “Animals have basically very similar requirements. Territorial animals want to do the same sort of things, and visual displays are using a different sensory modality to try and achieve same thing that birds do with songs and frogs do with calls.”
*Our thanks to:*
Daniel Van Dyk
Ph.D. student
Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW Australia