The British Herpetological Society

The Herpetological Journal is the Society's prestigious quarterly scientific journal. Articles are listed in Biological Abstracts, Current Awareness in Biological Sciences,Current Contents, Science Citation Index, and Zoological Record.

 ISSN 0268-0130

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pdf 04. Temporal trends in Podarcis muralis and Lacerta bilineata populations in a fragmented landscape in western France: Results from a 14 year time series

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https://doi.org/10.33256/hj30.1.2026

pp. 20-26

Authors: Roger Meek

Abstract: Identifying population changes is a prerequisite for any conservation efforts, but to evaluate trends requires long-term data sets. In this paper, changes in population numbers in two species of European lizards, Lacerta bilineata and Podarcis muralis, are described. The results are based on counts of mortalities and live lizard presence on roads collected over a 14 year period, which indicated wide annual fluctuations in numbers in both species, with inter-specific annual trends
strongly correlated. Snout to vent lengths (SVL) in L. bilineata were generally longer when annual numbers were higher but not in P. muralis. Regression analysis of the logarithmic transforms of annual lizard numbers as dependent variables and year as the independent variable indicated that despite population fluctuations, numbers of both species were stable or increased during the period of observation. Jackknife analysis identified unusually high numbers of L. bilineata in 2012 and P. muralis in 2010, but data from these years had minimal influence on the general trends with the peudo-regression coefficients generated from the Jackknife analysis in agreement with the true regressions. The results were therefore congruent, indicating annual fluctuations in both species were underpinned by long-term population stability.

Keywords: lizards, Lacerta bilineata, Podarcis muralis, population changes, road ecology

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IMPORTANT NOTE - JUNE 2020

Please note that as from Volume 31 Number 1 (January 2021) on, the Herpetological Journal will be available as an online publication only - the last print edition will be Volume 30 Number 4.   

Aligning with this change, it is now no longer possible to purchase a subscription that includes a print copy of the HJ.  All members who have existing HJ print subscriptions that remain active as at end June 2020 will receive the full four 2020 print editions.  New subscribers or renewals after this time will only have option to subscribe to the online only subscription package.  Subscription pricing has been amended to reflect the content changes.

 

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