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First published online January 17, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 395-402 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02676

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Active space of a movement-based signal: response to the Jacky dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus) display is sensitive to distance, but independent of orientation

Richard A. Peters^1,* and Christopher S. Evans²

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
² Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

View larger version (14K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 1. (A) Illustration of the space around a signalling lizard, divided into 45° sectors and three concentric circles at distances of 1, 3 and 6 m. We created stimulus sequences of each motor pattern by recording at points given by the intersection of the concentric circles and at angles of 0, 45 and 90° (filled circles). The empty circles represent views that were not sampled but which are not likely to be different to the positions chosen. The space behind the lizard was not included, as lizards do not typically display when oriented in a direction away from an intended receiver. (B) A schematic illustration of how the different viewing angles were generated by shifting the location of the camera object in the animation software. The drawings show how changing the location of the camera influenced the view of the tail-flick (top panel), foreleg wave (middle panel) and push-up (bottom panel) for the three camera locations shown in (A).

View larger version (86K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Representative frames showing the animated lizard (circled) against the background at 1 m (A), 3 m (B) and 6 m (C). Different background plant sequences were used for each relative distance in order to keep the size of the lizard proportional to the background. Although the 3D animated lizard appeared at roughly the same perch site in each of the sequences, the structure of background visual motion varied in an ecologically meaningful way between the sequences.

View larger version (21K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Column graphs depicting response probabilities to the 27 sequences featuring lizard displays as a function of angle of view (0, 45 and 90°) and the distance between signaler and receiver. Separate plots are presented for the tail-flick (top), backward and forward foreleg waves (middle) and push-up/body-rock (bottom), with shading representing the distance in each plot: 1 m (black), 3 m (grey) and 6 m (white).