A critical component of this study is being able to keep track of who is who, every single year. There are a lot of tried and true methods for doing so, including the low-tech of removing the last joint of different combinations of toes. There’s the mid-tech: injecting multi-colored liquid plastic that congeals just under the skin to give … More PIT Tagging Lizards
So the primary goal this year was to walk the islands and catch as many of the remaining lizards as possible. With a complete census of the population, we can start getting awesome data on natural selection’s “filters” dictating survival of the fittest. Even better, by taking careful measurements of the survivors we can figure out … More Working on the islands
So here’s just a bit of background to get you caught up before we dive into the new stuff. I’ve several posts from last May and June about the island introduction experiment (you can get to them from the archives) but I’ll give you the broad overview just so we’re on the same page. Islands … More A look at the islands
After several “are you still alive?” emails yesterday I think it’s time to update the blog! I’m sorry for the delay, but it was for good reason: this last week has been non-stop revisiting of the five introduction islands from last year. I’m going to stretch this out over several posts because it was a lot of work and the … More The islands revisited
At my last post I was on Paros waiting for the winds to die down so we could get out to survey the experimental islets. Well, they never calmed. While I think we could make the kayak across the straits in one piece, the lizards are wisely hunkered down and we really can’t expect to get a decent … More Still waiting on Aeolus
Hi Everyone, It’s been busy here! Anthony has arrived from Paris with a masters student, Menelia. We’ve been hiking, herping, and plotting the revisitation of the experimental islets from last year. Unfortunately, the one thing we haven’t managed yet is to catch any Podarcis on the islets – it’s super windy here and, while we might … More A quick update
I was just going through old videos on my hard drive and found this. I spent a whole night last year taking these photos – each about 6 feet apart – all the way across the Naxos frontage and to the Portera. I don’t know why I never uploaded it… it would have filled in a … More Naxos Portera Hyperlapse
So for that last post I was looking back at old blog entries from the last few years to link you to some shots of town and give you a sense of where I’m setting up camp. I was surprised that they were fairly few and far between. That means I need to post some more. I … More Some Naxos Pictures
After a couple of hours telephoning and taxiing around Athens, my package and I were safely reunited! things came together quickly enough that I actually had plenty of time to catch the afternoon BlueStar ferry to the islands and have a delicious lunch. I was going to just go for a cold sandwich but since dinner … More Made it to Naxos!
Well, I’d hoped to be in Naxos by now, but I’m still in Athens. In an attempt to save myself a bit of luggage hauling, I decided to ship some research supplies ahead to the University here. Unfortunately, the attempted delivery was just before 6 pm on a Friday. Big surprise, no one was in the … More Still in Athens
Colin Donihue 