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South Indian rock agama

Psammophilus dorsalis

Description:

Intrasexual competition between males for female mates is very common among different lizard species. Males spend most of their energy in fights over a female to establish dominance and/or to impress a female by demonstrating a high quality of fitness. In Egernia whitii, a type of skink found in southeastern Australia, larger males (strength and size correlating positively) have advantages over smaller males. Larger males are able to intimidate rivals with their size, ward off other males from a female and claim territory space. The losers of fights have an increased Stress rate and less breeding opportunities. Fighting among males illustrates to a female that he would be able to provide protection for her and her eggs.Males mostly use their weapons and become more aggressive only during the breeding season when they are competing over a female. Once the breeding season is over they rarely use their weapons. Some weapons used are spikes on the body and tail, teeth, and claws.In combat, an iguana lizard’s teeth are used as a weapon since their bite force can result in injury to other males; this leads the weaker male to flee from the fight and abort his chance of trying to mate. Bite-force performance predicts dominance in males. Male dominance correlates with a large territory size and access to females. Males with a stronger bite force sire more offspring in comparison to weaker biting rivals as well. In the collared lizard Crotaphytus collaris, males display their locomotive skills in order to attract a female by getting to territory and resources first. Faster males have energy to spend when it comes to obtaining food and territory.Faster males are protective of their female mate as opposed to slower males they also have a higher reproductive success then slower males because faster males mate with more females on a first come, first serve basis. In Australian agamid lizards coloration influences competitive success; the more intimidating a male is perceived based on his color, the more likely a weaker male would not want to compete with him for a chance to mate with a female.(wiki)

Notes:

see how they change the color pic 4 it was few sec b4 the fight.

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7 Comments

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 8 years ago

What a great series.

pamsai
pamsai 8 years ago

Wow !!

coopboop
coopboop 8 years ago

Wow, amazing capture of an intense moment. I appreciate the dialog and sharing the story of the competition. Amazing!

Zlatan Celebic
Zlatan Celebic 8 years ago

great series and a great story. Thanks for sharing.

CalebSteindel
CalebSteindel 8 years ago

pretty crazy, really interesting series!

EmilyMarino
EmilyMarino 8 years ago

Great series! The last picture is fantastic!

Ava T-B
Ava T-B 8 years ago

Wow! great action shots!

HemantKumar
Spotted by
HemantKumar

Telangana, India

Spotted on Jun 1, 2015
Submitted on Jun 1, 2015

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