Caudal autophagy in a sphaerodactyline gecko from the Peruvian Amazon
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Schnell, L., and L. Swierk. 2021. Caudal autophagy in a sphaerodactyline gecko from the Peruvian Amazon. The Herpetological Bulletin 157:44–45.
Voluntary tail shedding (caudal autotomy), often accompanied with writhing of the shed tail in a way that distracts a predator, is a widespread adaptive strategy that can help lizards avoid predation (Vitt et al., 1977, Bateman & Fleming, 2009). Lizards with autotomised tails may experience reduced agility (Chapple & Swain, 2002) or social status (Martín & Salvador, 1993), and they will have fewer future opportunities to escape predators as caudal autotomy is usually only possible in original tail tissue (Bellairs & Bryant, 1985). In many species, caudal fat is a crucial energy resource so that the loss of the tail could be the difference between life and death (Daniels, 1984). In addition, regenerating a tail itself is costly and substantially increases a lizard’s resting metabolic rate (Dial & Fitzpatrick, 1981).