城市化在全球范围内发生,造成剧烈而突然的环境变化,导致生物多样性丧失。然而,一些动物物种可以处理这些变化,并在这样的人工环境中茁壮成长。一种可能的解释是,城市个体拥有更好的认知能力,但是大多数研究都集中在鸟类和哺乳动物上,并产生了不同的结果。爬行动物受到的关注要少得多,尽管一些蜥蜴物种是普通的城市居民。意大利墙蜥蜴,Podarcissiculus,和普通的墙蜥蜴,Podarcismuralis,是人类栖息地中的两种成功的蜥蜴,它们在城市地区茁壮成长。为了测试城市和半自然环境之间的认知技能差异,我们通过绕道任务在两个物种的同位种群中研究了抑制控制,在249只蜥蜴中进行了部分人工野外测试。复杂的抑制控制被认为对于更高程度的认知灵活性和其他更高水平的认知能力至关重要。在这项任务中,我们用透明的屏障面对蜥蜴,将他们与一个理想的避难所分开,他们只能通过控制他们直走的冲动来到达,而不是绕过屏障。我们发现蜥蜴在城市和半自然环境中没有差异,也不是物种之间,但女性总体表现优于男性。此外,在我们的研究中,有48%的蜥蜴在5项试验中没有进行正确的试验,暗示这些物种的任务难度。这项研究是最早解决蜥蜴认知问题的研究之一,通过它们的抑制控制,作为在城市和强调成功的潜在解释,人们应该小心地假设城市动物通常具有增强的认知表现,因为它可能是分类单元,任务,或依赖于条件。
Urbanization occurs at a global scale, imposing dramatic and abrupt environmental changes that lead to biodiversity loss. Yet, some animal species can handle these changes, and thrive in such artificial environments. One possible explanation is that urban individuals are equipped with better cognitive abilities, but most studies have focused on birds and mammals and yielded varied results. Reptiles have received much less attention, despite some lizard species being common city dwellers. The Italian wall lizard, Podarcis siculus, and the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, are two successful lizards in anthropogenic habitats that thrive in urban locations. To test for differences in a cognitive skill between urban and semi-natural environments, we investigated inhibitory control through a detour task in syntopic populations of the two species, across 249 lizards that were tested in partially artificial field settings. Sophisticated inhibitory control is considered essential for higher degrees of cognitive flexibility and other higher-level cognitive abilities. In this task, we confronted lizards with a transparent barrier, separating them from a desired shelter area that they could only reach by controlling their impulse to go straight and instead detour the barrier. We found no differences between lizards in urban and semi-natural environments, nor between species, but females overall performed better than males. Moreover, 48% of the lizards in our study did not perform a correct trial in any of the 5 trials, hinting at the difficulty of the task for these species. This study is among the first to address lizard cognition, through their inhibitory control, as a potential explanation for success in cities and highlights one should be careful with assuming that urban animals generally have enhanced cognitive performance, as it might be taxa, task, or condition dependent.