Tail regeneration after autotomy revives survival: a case from a long-term monitored lizard population under avian predation.

Caudal autotomy in lizards has intrigued scientists for more than 100 years. Because of the relative lack of literature under natural conditions, the complicated association among field autotomy rate, real predation pressure, the long-term cost of tail loss, and the benefit of regeneration remains equivocal. In this study, we conducted a 7-year capture-mark-recapture (CMR) programme with a wild population of a sexually dichromatic lizard, Takydromus viridipunctatus We used autotomy indexes and a contemporary bird census mega-dataset of four predatory birds as predictors to examine the association between tail loss and predation pressure.