Home Range Size and Overlap of the Small Nocturnal Schlegel's Japanese Gecko (Gekko japonicus), Introduced into a City Park in Korea

초록

Studying the home range of an organism is important in understanding its ecology. Due to being cryptic, few studies have been conducted on the home range studies of small, nocturnal geckos. We conducted radio-tracking surveys for 23 individuals to estimate the home range size and home range overlap of the Schlegel's Japanese gecko (Gekko japonicus) previously introduced into a suburban city park. Individuals were commonly found in artificial structures (buildings and accessory structures) and on nearby natural trees. Daily moved distance was positively correlated with home range size. Minimum convex polygon (MCP) home range was 97.8 m(2) for females and 99.5 m(2) for males, on average. Gekko japonicus moved farther daily distances and used wider MCP and Kernel 95 home ranges in breeding season compared to non-breeding season, while the size of Kernel 50 home range did not differ between seasons. Both daily moved distance and home range size were not significantly different between sexes. In the breeding season, MCP and Kernel 50 home ranges of each gecko overlapped with 32.4% and 13.8% of remaining geckos, respectively. Our results not only show that 1) G. japonicus uses both artificial structures and adjacent natural trees as microhabitat, but also suggest that 2) G. japonicus is non-territorial, but has a core habitat that is shared with few other individuals, and 3) the reproductive system of G. japonicus is polygamous.

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