Loss of sea turtle eggs drives the collapse of an insular reptile community.

Marine subsidies are vital for terrestrial ecosystems, especially low-productivity islands. However, the impact of losing these subsidies on the terrestrial food web can be difficult to predict. We analyzed 23 years of survey data from Orchid Island to assess the consequences of the abrupt loss of an important marine subsidy.

Trans-marine dispersal inferred from the saltwater tolerance of lizards from Taiwan.

Dehydration and hypersalinity challenge non-marine organisms crossing the ocean. The rate of water loss and saltwater tolerance thus determine the ability to disperse over sea and further influence species distribution. Surprisingly, this association between physiology and ecology is rarely investigated in terrestrial vertebrates.

Sum of fears among intraguild predators drives the survival of green sea turtle () eggs.

Ecologists have long theorized that apex predators stabilize trophic systems by exerting a net protective effect on the basal resource of a food web. Although experimental and observational studies have borne this out, it is not always clear what behavioural mechanisms among the trophically connected species are responsible for this stability. Fear of intraguild predation is commonly identified as one such mechanism in models and mesocosm studies, but empirical evidence in natural systems remains limited, as the complexity of many trophic systems renders detailed behavioural studies of species interactions challenging.

When males live longer: Resource-driven territorial behavior drives sex-specific survival in snakes.

Phylogenetic analysis has shown that males' propensity to engage in aggressive encounters is associated with females having greater longevity. Here, we confirm the causal link between aggression and reduced longevity by looking at an egg-eating snake () in which females defend territories in the presence of sea turtle eggs. We monitored aggressiveness and survival at two sites: a control site with a stable supply of turtle eggs, and a second site where we collected data before and after a storm that eroded the beach on which turtles nested, thus leading to a loss of territoriality.

Rafting on floating fruit is effective for oceanic dispersal of flightless weevils.

Terrestrial species, especially non-vagile ones (those unable to fly or swim), cannot cross oceans without exploiting other animals or floating objects. However, the colonisation history of flightless weevils, inferred from genetic data, reveals their ability to travel long distances to colonise remote islands. Here, we used captive-bred to analyse (i) the physiological tolerance of weevils (egg, larva and adult stages) to different levels of salinity; (ii) the survival rate of larvae in a simulated ocean environment in the laboratory; and (iii) the survival rate of larvae in a field experiment in the ocean using fruit of the fish poison tree floating on the Kuroshio current in the Pacific Ocean.

Surf and turf: predation by egg-eating snakes has led to the evolution of parental care in a terrestrial lizard.

Animals display a great diversity of parental care tactics that ultimately enhance offspring survival, but how such behaviors evolve remains unknown for most systems. Here, we studied the evolution of maternal care, in the form of nest guarding, in a single population of long-tailed sun skink (Eutropis longicaudata) living on Orchid Island (Taiwan). This species typically does not provide protection to its offspring.

The functional significance of aposematic signals: geographic variation in the responses of widespread lizard predators to colourful invertebrate prey.

Conspicuous colouration can evolve as a primary defence mechanism that advertises unprofitability and discourages predatory attacks. Geographic overlap is a primary determinant of whether individual predators encounter, and thus learn to avoid, such aposematic prey. We experimentally tested whether the conspicuous colouration displayed by Old World pachyrhynchid weevils (Pachyrhynchus tobafolius and Kashotonus multipunctatus) deters predation by visual predators (Swinhoe's tree lizard; Agamidae, Japalura swinhonis).