Mating Colours

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Mating Colours
Photo Information
Copyright: Ram Thakur (ramthakur) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2873 W: 111 N: 6899] (22507)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-05-04
Categories: Reptiles
Camera: Nikon D200, Sigma EX 105mm F2.8 DG Macro, 58mm UV
Exposure: f/6.3, 1/320 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): Reptiles - Lizards, Chuckwallas, Agamas & Tegus 3 [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-05-15 1:32
Viewed: 439
Points: 38
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
I have been observing the Garden Lizards this month and have seen that most of the males have turned various shades of red on the upper parts of their bodies. I do know that these male reptiles do so during mating season.
This fellow was bright red when I shot its first picture. Then, as I took more shots by changing camera settings, it started getting lighter and lighter and by the time I had finished my 6th shot, it was almost back to its original dull geyish brown colour (See WORKSHOP). The process took about 2 minutes. I am not a scientist, so I cannot explain the phenomenon and only report it here.
BTW, it had noticed me taking its pictures, but kept its position on the tree trunk; Garden Lizards are not bothered by close human presence unless the changing colours of this fellow expressed his annoyance with me :-).
This is the third shot in the sequence; the first one when it was bright red did not turn out to be that good.
Here is an interesting article on female lizard behaviour in response to male mating colours:

Female lizards desire males of many colours

Vive la difference – between men. That's the attitude of the female painted dragon lizard, which lives across the southern states of Australia.

The females are polyandrous, and mate with as many males as possible. That is easy, because they only need to copulate for 10 seconds before males ejaculate.

What is more, they store ejaculates inside their reproductive tracts for up to five months, forcing sperm from different males to compete to fertilise their eggs.

Evolutionarily speaking, this all makes good sense. By encouraging competition the female increases her chances of getting hold of good-quality sperm.

What has been a mystery is the fact that the brightly-coloured male dragons come in more than one version: some have red heads, some yellow heads, and a third version – discovered last year – have orange heads.

Spice of life
Usually natural selection weans out inferior versions of an organism, so the fact that all versions of male painted dragons exist in the population has been hard to explain.

Now a team of evolutionary ecologists believe that they have solved a major piece of the puzzle.

They think female dragons deliberately choose to mate with males with different coloured heads, perhaps as a means of ensuring they are not mating with the same male twice. That in turn helps ensure that the different head colours persist.

"Given the choice, they go for variety," says Mo Healey of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, who led the study. "This is the major selective pressure driving and maintaining the trait."

Feisty red-heads
Healey points out, however, that the female preference for variety isn't the only driving force. "The males also use head colour to assess each other's willingness to fight," she says. Red heads are better fighters.

In the study, female lizards were allowed to approach male lizards in Perspex-sided cages. Given the option of either a single red-headed male or a single yellow-headed one, eight females choose yellow and 10 choose red, a difference that is not significant.

Then 76 females were allowed to approach two pairs of males, one pair with the same, the other with different coloured heads. Two thirds of the females chose the pair with different coloured heads.

"It's yet another demonstration that these little creatures with brains much smaller than a pea are taking in information about who is who, and using it to make extraordinarily subtle reproductive decisions about who to pursue to enhance fitness," says zoologist Rick Shine of the University of Sydney.

Male hunt
Healey and her colleagues also found that females that mated with multiple males hatched 12% more of their eggs than those who only mated with one male. In other words, multiple mating improves reproductive success.

But there is a danger to females who mate with lots of males. When the researchers released lizards back into the bush, 20% of females released with males of one colour were recaptured over 13 weeks, compared to only 7% of females released with a mixture of red- and yellow-headed males.

"They travel around more going to males, and time away from the burrow is dangerous," says Healey.

Source:http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13774-female-lizards-desire-males-of-many-colours.html

TFL
haraprasan, eng55, pvs, JPlumb, maurydv, eqshannon, zulfu, mariki, loot, Jamesp, SelenE, gannu, albert, parthasarathi has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To loot: I'm a celebrity!ramthakur 1 05-16 00:25
To pvs: You pointramthakur 1 05-15 03:23
To eng55: Good idearamthakur 1 05-15 03:13
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Critiques [Translate]

Hi Mr. Ram,
A nice capture of this colorful garden lizard. Excellent composition and sharp details. BTW did your wide angle lens arrived? and when are you going to Himanchal Pradesh to capture some landscapes? Thanks a lot for sharing.

Sincerely
HP

Hi Ram,
Beautiful capture.Details are tacksharp.BG,proud expression on face,catchlight in eyes are perfect.
I prefered a ws,hope you'll like it.
Thanks for posting.

Hi Ram,

A nice capture of this Lizard,with great colors,pose and BG,I am not sure about the change of colors of the lizard,I guess it is more due to the fact your changed camera settings and lightmeasurements that caused this colorchange,I posted a ws (done on your ws version) in the workshop to show what I mean,anyway it is a fine and colorfull posting and much nicer to look at then the grey and dull weather we have at the moment overhere,thank

Paul

Hi Ram, excellent exposure on the Lizard though it looks like it forced some clipping on the post. Detail and this colour on the lizard are good. I also like the depth of field you selected giving us a "taste" of his natural background.

Thanks, John

Bellissima immagine, ottimo POV, buono il taglio compositivo e le diverse interpretazioni sono soggettive, molto buona la nitidezza e molto belli i colori dopo le correzioni rispetto all'originale in WS. Grazie e complimenti. Ciao Maurizio

Very nice shot, great colours and composition
Tfs
Ilias

Beyond the extensive notes....the image is pure pattern. There seems to be a dual theme pattern which come close to clashing and add a tonal quality to the image. A tone which cannot be seen nor heard but only experienced. I'll wager your image is even better looking due to the way in which you saw it, as was the experience of seeing it up close and live!
Bob

  • Great 
  • zulfu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 397 W: 0 N: 64] (444)
  • [2008-05-15 9:06]

Hello Sir Ram, splendid capture of this beautiful lizard with excellent notes and WS captures. TFS. Regards,
Mehmet

  • Great 
  • mariki Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 846 W: 70 N: 1571] (6879)
  • [2008-05-15 10:29]

Hello Ram,

Excellent sharp picture of this lizard. Good composition, POV and DOF. Amazing this change of colours.
Cheers,
Mariki

  • Great 
  • joey Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1506 W: 242 N: 4919] (17277)
  • [2008-05-15 13:21]

Extremely sharp capture of this Garden Lizard, Ram!
The lighting is perfect!
Lovely colours too... it's amazing how much they can change their colouring.
Brilliant DOF and BG.
Decent POV.
Well done!!

Joe

  • Great 
  • Jamesp Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1177 W: 0 N: 4274] (12520)
  • [2008-05-15 22:50]

Hi Ram

Greetings from A Dhabi

A great pose with lovely colour and excellent detail. Well observed and captured.


James

  • Great 
  • manyee Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3085 W: 231 N: 5879] (19530)
  • [2008-05-15 23:05]

Hi Ram,
The details on the scales are just amazing.
Although the left side of the tree is a bit overexposed,
the exposure on the lizard is spot-on.
Beautiful colors and good composition.
TFS : )

Hi Ram very interesting specie,excellent quality under all terms of valutation..and great and interestings notes,my best compliments,Luciano

Hi Ram

This is a lovely shot of the male showing his mating colours. I would have loved to see it in the full bright red stage, but possibly the red colours fooled your camera's sensors. It is very interesting to note the colour change in the workshop as well. No wonder a certain member previously have posted a photo of one of these garden lizards calling it a chameleon (chuckle).

Your presentation is great with good colours, details, and composition. It worked well that the lizard was on the shady side of the branch, so perhaps the only slight hitch is the bit of OE on the sunny side of the branch, but hey, that's only me doing some nit picking. I did notice that it seemed like open season on workshops though (you started it so don't go blaming us now) so I had to throw in one as well. This is just a fun one to change the view a little by making use of the slightly more freedom we have when working with workshops. I hope you like it though.

Well done and TFS.
Regards
Loot

  • Great 
  • SelenE Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2301 W: 58 N: 4025] (13156)
  • [2008-05-16 5:45]

Hello Ram,
Very good capture of this beautiful lizard. Focus, sharpness, colors, POV, details and composition are very nice. TFS
Greetings,
Selen

  • Great 
  • gannu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 697 W: 4 N: 1699] (8106)
  • [2008-05-16 6:45]

Hello Ram Sir,
Nice shot and good composition. The focus is spot on and great one. Ganesh

Hello Ram,
Superb photo of this beautiful lizard, even better with the crop made by eng55
TFS
Albert

Nice capture with good focus and colours.

  • Great 
  • Mana Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1655 W: 20 N: 4652] (15084)
  • [2008-05-17 18:53]

Hi Ram,
Outstanding shot of this garden lizard in mating colours. Immaculate sharpness and details with nice colours. Superb lighting and exposure and I like the skillfully freezed climbing action. Excellent DOF, POV and composition. Kudos.
TFS.
Sumon

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