Tuatara scent-discrimination behaviour

Special topic project (BIOL307) - University of Waikato, New Zealand

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Advisor:

Prof. Joseph R. Waas

About:

Tuataras are a primitive group of reptiles from the order Rhynchocephalia. They are endemic to New Zealand and are highly cryptic. During the breeding season, conspecific interaction is mainly visual with territorial males being highly aggressive towards other males within their territory. The discovery of the “tuataric acid”, produced within the tuatara cloaca may play a possible role in pheromone communication, and tuatara have been shown to use chemosensory to detect prey. Individual tuataras have unique mixtures of triglycerols that remain stable over many years, potentially allowing individual recognition. I examined the behaviour of tuatara subjected odours of tuatara from different geographic regions. In particular, if tuatara are able to behaviourally detect and discriminate between the same population and different populations.

Skills:

Cloacal odour extraction, camera set-up, and behavioural analysis through video recording.

Species:

• Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)