How Feral Cats Affect Lizards on Greek Islands

A team of researchers from universities in the U.S. and Greece has conducted a study on how feral cats affect the Aegean wall lizards living in the Greek Cyclades. In their paper “Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences“ they describe the behavior adaptations they have observed in native lizards to the presence of feral cats.Feral cats are cats living in the wild. In the past, feral cats have been responsible for the extinction and decline of other species, particularly birds. Another type of creature impacted by feral cats is lizards. Feral cats attack and kill lizards whether they eat them or not. In a new study conducted on the islands of Santorini, Kea, and Naxos in the Cyclades, where cats were introduced by humans approximately 9,500 years ago, the researchers show how the native lizards have adapted to the introduced threat. The researchers aimed to record both the population of the lizards in areas where the cats lived and the adaptive behaviors developed to help them survive. To determine populations, the researchers counted how many lizards they detected during various outings. Adaptive behaviors were noted by placing cat decoys in areas where the lizards lived.Then they compared behavior patterns in areas where there were more, less, or no feral cats at all. The researchers found that in areas with a large number of cats, lizard populations were approximately half than those in areas where there were no cats at all. They also noted that lizards threatened from cats tended to keep close to refuge areas and also to resort to tail shedding more often. The most interesting finding of the study was that lizards had developed many ways to adapt to cat risk. On the islands with no feral cats, the lizards showed virtually no fear of decoy cats and even approached them on several occasions.    

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