FECES AVOIDANCE-BEHAVIOR IN UNISEXUAL AND BISEXUAL GECKOS

The unisexual gecko, Lepidodactylus lugubris, harbours fewer types of parasites and has lower prevalence of infection than does the bisexual gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, or its bisexual parental species. Becau se many diseases and parasites are transmitted through faeces, we cond ucted a series of experiments to examine whether or not L. lugubris ha d a greater tendency to avoid faecal matter than H. frenatus. The rese arch found that bath species defecated away from their daytime hiding places. The unisexual geckos, when given a choice, picked hiding place s that were surrounded by clean rather than contaminated sphagnum moss , or places that were sprayed with distilled water rather than faecal solution. The bisexuals also displayed a tendency to pick hiding place s surrounded by uncontaminated sphagnum moss, but, unlike the unisexua ls, did not avoid faecal solution. Neither species avoided dried faeca l matter. These data support our hypothesis that the unisexual gecko, L. lugubris, exhibits more parasite avoidance behaviours than the bise xual gecko, H. frenatus.