Study of rock agama gives insights into urbanisation and conservation

Subject : Geography

Section: Human Geography

The Peninsular Rock Agama (Psammophilus dorsalis) which is a type of garden lizard has a strong presence in southern India.
The IISc study, published in Frontiers in Conservation Science, examined several environmental factors that could affect the presence of the lizard and revealed that they are found mainly in rocky places and warm spots. Thus, the inference is that conservation efforts must point towards retaining rocky patches even while reviving landscapes by planting trees.
These lizards eat insects and are in turn eaten by raptors, snakes and dogs, they cannot live in places where there are no insects.
This lizard is a large animal, strikingly coloured in orange and black. They do not generate their own body heat, so they need to seek warmth from external sources like a warm rock or a sunny spot on the wall. They are important in ecology from different aspects — they can indicate which parts of the city are warming, and their numbers show how the food web is changing.
Insects are critical components of a healthy ecosystem as they provide so many services, including pollination. So, while rock agamas are interesting in themselves, they are also a good model system to understand other aspects of the ecosystem.

Ectotherm

Ectotherm, any so-called cold-blooded animal—that is, any animal whose regulation of body temperature depends on external sources, such as sunlight or a heated rock surface. The ectotherms include the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates.