ABSTRACT
Gecko substrate use is likely influenced by adhesive performance, yet few studies have demonstrated this empirically. Herein, we examined the substrate use, adhesive performance and vertical clinging behaviour of Gekko gecko in captivity to investigate whether adhesive performance influences patterns of substrate use. We found that geckos were observed significantly more often on the substrate (glass) that elicited maximal adhesive performance relative to its availability within our experimental enclosures, indicating that geckos preferentially use substrates on which their adhesive performance is maximal. Our work here provides additional, yet crucial data establishing connections between adhesive performance and patterns of substrate use in captivity, suggesting the hypothesis that substrate preferences of free-ranging geckos should be correlated with adhesive performance. Clearly, further experimental and field research is necessary to test this hypothesis and identify other parameters that individually and/or collectively influence the habitat use of free-ranging geckos.
Footnotes
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing or financial interests.
Author contributions
Conceptualization: A.M.G., A.D., P.H.N.; Methodology: A.M.G., A.M.P., A.D., P.H.N.; Validation: A.M.G., A.D., P.H.N.; Formal analysis: A.M.G., A.M.P.; Investigation: A.M.G., A.M.P.; Resources: A.D., P.H.N.; Data curation: A.M.G.; Writing - original draft: A.M.G., A.M.P.; Writing - review & editing: A.M.G., A.M.P., A.D., P.H.N.; Visualization: A.M.G.; Supervision: A.M.G., A.D., P.H.N.; Project administration: A.M.G.; Funding acquisition: A.M.G., A.D., P.H.N.
Funding
A.M.G. acknowledges financial support from the Department of Biology's Tiered Mentoring Program. A.D. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF DMR-1610483).
Data availability
Datasets supporting the results of this article can be found in figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12988670
Supplementary information
Supplementary information available online at https://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.241240.supplemental
- Received November 24, 2020.
- Accepted January 13, 2021.
- © 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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