VERTEBRATE NATAL DISPERSAL - THE PROBLEM OF NONINDEPENDENCE OF SIBLINGS

The studies on natal dispersal in vertebrates often ignore the family structure and treat the behaviour of siblings as if they were statisti cally independent. This might lead to erroneous conclusions since the non-independence of siblings is supported empirically. We show the pos sible misinterpretations that may arise from such approaches and propo se a method allowing to avoid this problem. We illustrate this method by using data on natal dispersal of the common lizard Lacerta vivipara .