Lizard Pushups: Territoriality
In order to learn more, you need to be able to distinguish individual lizards from each other. You consult a local herpetologist, who shows you how to capture lizards, and how to mark them with harmless spots of paint.
Now that you can distinguish individuals, your observations uncover some interesting patterns. You start to notice that certain individual lizards are often seen in the same locations. You make a map of your back yard:
If you draw lines around groups of sightings, you see that each marked lizard has its own territory. You also notice that there is some overlap in the territories.
To see an actual map of lizard territories, take a side excursion to Lizard Land (Barry Sinervo's site at U.C. Santa Cruz).
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