"Males are fooled by looks, but not by scent," said fellow researcher Jonathan Webb, of the University of Sydney. "She-males are able to maintain this deception by staying one step ahead of a prying male, and thereby avoiding a nosy tongue that might give the game away." Other animals, such as fish, have been shown to use sexual deception to get an advantage in the wild, but this research is the first to show reptiles imitating the opposite sex through their appearance. "What is special about this research is that we split the visual and olfactory cues," said Keogh. This allowed the researchers to know that it was the colors of the young lizards that were deceiving the male adults, and not other factors. Despite the advantage of imitating female, not all young male lizards perform the deceptive act. "We think there are only some males that do this," said Keogh. Knowing exactly how many young lizards imitate females is difficult because the area being studied, Augrabies Falls National Park in the South Africa, has the densest population of lizards worldwide. Related Links: |
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