Invasive Italian wall lizards outcompete native congeneric species in finding food in a Y-maze

Though biological invasions constitute one of the biggest threats for global biodiversity, our understanding of the mechanisms that enable invasive species to outperform native species is still limited, especially, in terms of behavior. Most available studies have examined behavioral traits which favor invasive species on the later stages of invasion, however, our knowledge on earlier stages, namely, when alien species face novel environments and must exploit new resources, remains obscure. Here, we focus on one crucial behavioral trait, finding food. The Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus) has been widely introduced and established viable populations in S. Europe and N. America. We examined whether P. siculus has enhanced exploratory behavior and abilities to find food compared to two native congeneric species with which it may come in contact in the near future, an insular endemic (P. milensis) and a widely distributed lizard (P. erhardii). We performed a Y-maze experiment, in which we varied arm markings in a standard way to prevent learning. Podarcis siculus was more efficient than its congenerics in finding and consuming food. This exploitative superiority was persistent, more frequent and repetitive. Interesting behavioral differences were also detected within the native species. Some P. milensis individuals showed no interest in exploring the maze, while few P. erhardii individuals remained rather indifferent to food even after detecting it. Our results suggest that the invasive P. siculus displays behavioral traits that could provide better opportunities for survival in the new environment and thus facilitate establishment even in the presence of congenerics. This provides further support to the idea that behavior plays a crucial role in animal invasions.