Jon Milgrom ’08 and Visiting Professor of Biology Peter Zani spent their summer catching — and in some cases avoiding — reptiles. The pair teamed to conduct research on the behavioral response of lizards to their snake predators.
Milgrom, who was awarded the Renwick Prize in Biology, traveled to Burns, Ore., in June where each day he helped Zani catch lizards while avoiding rattlesnakes. “We would catch lizards during the morning and early afternoon and then run experiments on lizard endurance (by putting them on a small treadmill) and process our catch until evening,” Zani explained. “With Jon’s help I was able to catch and mark 509 lizards this summer. In addition, we saw as many as 67 snakes in one day, including 28 rattlesnakes.”
The project focused on the behavior of lizards in response to snakes, which are major predators. Using a rubber snake mounted on a golf-club shaft, the researchers would approach a lizard and record where it ran and how fast. “We were testing the idea that lizards utilize the nearby cliffs as a refuge from snakes, which can’t climb,” Zani added. “Just as predicted, the lizards almost always ran toward the cliff and escaped by running over and down its sheer face.”
Milgrom, who is analyzing the findings for his senior thesis in biology a year early, will join Zani in presenting their research at the meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Phoenix in January.
