Martine Lacalle : Connect in order to contact the contributor. Search Access content directly Footer. Sign in. Search Loading Search using SolR syntax. Search using SolR syntax Run the search. Theses Year : Dragan Arsovskic 1. Abstract en fr. The following story offers a humble example of islands as natural laboratories,stressing the significance of insights gained from free-ranging animals in asomewhat simplified context.
Comparisons between island Golem Grad, divided intonarrow shores and a large plateau and mainland Konjsko populations revealedage-specific life-history trends and behavioural peculiarities.
The island contextbrought to attention very unusual demographic processes, eventually resonatingwith a seemingly inevitable population doom brought upon by insufferablesexual conflict. Neonates to three-year old tortoises exhibit slow growth and low variationin body size VBS among individuals, likely illustrating the impact of a soft shelland lack of parental care.
The subsequent gradual approach of a survival plateau annual survival rate increase: 0. When protected by a hard carapace thattranslates into a survival plateau 0. Size-at-maturity is thus ablurred notion in these tortoises. Testosterone levels and sexual activity indicatethat minimal size at maturity in precocious males is somewhere between mm straight carapace length SCL , whereas VBS and literature point to arange of mm.
Clearly some tortoises mature early, while others are in norush at all. Sexual size dimorphism in the Testudo genus suggests most larger-atmaturitytortoises are likely females; Golem Grad population-mean femaleasymptotic size estimates make no exception. Nevertheless, actual body sizes on the island do not reflect estimates fromincremental growth — the largest individuals are males.
