How to estimate body condition in large lizards? Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae, Dumeril and Bibron, 1839) as a case study.

ABSTRACT: Body condition is a measure of the health and fitness of an organism represented by available energy stores, typically fat. Direct measurements of fat are difficult to obtain non-invasively, thus body condition is usually estimated by calculating body condition indices (BCIs) using mass and length. The utility of BCIs is contingent on the relationship of BCIs and fat, thereby validation studies should be performed to select the best performing BCI before application in ecological investigations. We evaluated 11 BCIs in 883 Argentine black and white tegus (Salvator merianae) removed from their non-native range in South Florida, United States. Because the length-mass relationship in tegus is allometric, a segmented linear regression model was fit to the relationship between mass and length t

SUBMITTER: McCaffrey KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9955610 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature