Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today, I'm sure I witnessed what you meant, Nick, when you responded to my last post "breeding behavior" and wrote that push-ups are more of a territorial thing than breeding behavior. Today, on the hottest day of this year so far, I put my pair of chucks in their outdoor enclosure. I first put the female in and within a minute, she started doing push-ups! Amazing! Well, to me anyway. LOL. I have never witnessed her doing push-ups before, ever! Next, I added the male, and in about 3 minutes, he started doing push-ups too! I've never witnessed him exhibiting this behavior either. Excuse my excitement, but I love watching this. Very comical.

A little while later, it appeared to me that when the male nudged up against the female, he was about to bite her neck. Maybe what I am witnessing is just hopeful thinking.

Anyway, here's my theory as to why they both displayed. I wondered at first if it was simply something to do with the sunshine. As anyone knows who has kept almost any lizard, sunshine will bring out the best in them (natural behavior, better color, etc.). I'm also thinking that since that enclosure is essentially new to them (I only had them out in it for a single day earlier this spring when it wasn't nearly as hot as it is today), they were simply advertising to other potential chucks that might be in the area. As they often do, of course, they did a lot of tongue tasting of the rocks. After "smelling" and tasting the rocks and finding that no other chucks were present, maybe they were simply claiming this new area as their own. Maybe, inside, for whatever reason, the male doesn't "feel" the need to display because the territory is well marked as being his and he hasn't had any threats or challenges from other males. It would have been interesting to see if both he and the female would have displayed if I would have simply put them in another indoor setup that wasn't marked with his scent. I suspect that both the natural sunshine and the new enclosure both played a role to their change in behavior. I just found it strange how quickly the new environment resulted in a behavior I've never seen from them before.

Even later, I witnessed what appeared to be the male bobbing and doing push-ups a little differently. I know you mentioned, Nick, that push-ups were more of a territorial thing and excuse my ignorance since this is basically new to me, but do chucks have a different rhythm when doing push-ups as part of their ritualistic breeding behavior (e.g. as do green anoles when displaying at females) or did you mean that push-ups are not even part of their breeding behavior but instead used simply to establish territories, dominance, etc.

I wish I had taken some pics of the long, waxy femoral pore plugs for those of you who haven't seen them. Pretty interesting looking IMO. As I mentioned before, my male, a few weeks after coming out of brumation, developed long, waxy plugs coming out of his femoral pores that looked like the scales on a fringe-toed lizards feet. Most of these have broken off or have been worn shorter, so any pics now would not look as interesting. It does seem that these secretions coincided with my male exhibiting different behavior (what I would describe as almost biting the female's neck).

Does anyone have any links of a male displaying towards a female (whatever that encompasses)and them mating afterwards? I looked on Google and Youtube but didn't find much.

Thanks,
Perry

Perry,
The pushups can definitely be associated with breeding behavior, but the two don't always go hand in hand. The pushup is definitely more of a broad statement, than just stating the desire to mate. I would think of it as an advertisement that large, dominant males make, to show that they are in charge of a certain territory. This may warn other males to stay away, as well as tell females that they may have to put up with his breeding attempts as long as she is in his territory. Females will also do the pushups, but there seems to be a subtle difference in technique. The female's pushup could be more of a submissive message, or even one of defiance, if she is unready to breed. We have found some of our pairs in the act, but have not witnessed much of the preceeding behavior.

Nick

The strange thing is that she did pushups within a minute of putting her in the outdoor enclosure. I didn't notice any difference in the first pushups she did (in comparison to the male's pushups, which he did a few minutes after I put him in). I wonder who she was displaying to, or thought she was displaying to, because like I mentioned, not only was the male not added until later, but not even his scent would have been present. Her pushups appeared to be as exaggerated as his, although after I added him she did her pushups less (both in frequency and intensity) while the male continued to do his, at least until they became more familiar with their new surroundings.

I have a female that became egg-bound in 2005 and had to have a hysterectomy to save her. Her ovaries were not taken, as they are way too close to the vena cava, and I was warned by the vet to keep an eye on her at breeding time because she could form eggs with nowhere to put them. I have never put her in a cage with the male again. Increasingly over the past 5 years, she has become more and more macho! She even has a widening red strip down her back and an orange tinge on her spotty belly. She is doing push-ups like a maniac!! I pick her up and put her back in her cage and she does them. She catches a glimpse of another animal or lizard, she does them. She does push-ups for no reason at all! I wouldn't be surprised if she does them inside of her hide when she is dreaming at night. LOL Yesterday, I brought her in from her outdoor enclosure and set her on the sofa with the male. She did push-ups and then charged him, complete with circling and mouth gaping and repeatedly bit him in the side and then went for his face. He also circled, but he was a gentleman, and besides push-ups, did not try to bite, but just top get away. She was relentless and would give him no peace while he was in her view. Poor guy was really confused. You could feel his disbelief! So, has anybody else witnessed this behaviour in females, and more particularly, in "fixed" females? I banished her to her cage, of course, but not before observing them for awhile. (No harm was done)--except to his ego? LOL BTW, it is said that the speed, cadence and repetition of male Chuckwallas is a "signature" and unique to each male. Therefore, one male can recognize an arch rival from quite a distance because of his signature push-up pattern.

Very interesting that she became more aggressive and territorial after the surgery, especially since her ovaries were left intact.

Both my male and female did pushups for the first time 4 days ago. Strange though how I haven't seen them do any since. Maybe I should change the subject to "first and last time pushups?" LOL It's almost as though they are defending their new territory (the outside cage I put them in four days ago). The female seemed to be acting like she was co-defending. I've read that territories are more defined and most often maintained/defended by males during times of plenty (a lot of food) and that during times of drought (limited food sources), these territories often break down.

Ever since my chucks came out of brumation, I've been very intent on feeding them all sorts of food (lots of flowers, especially abundant this spring). I'm wondering whether my chucks, which are so used to each other's presence, simply stopped doing pushups the same day they started because, after getting used to their new surroundings, they realized that there were no chucks that they had to defend their resources from. I've heard some people notice that a particular chuck they had wouldn't eat until they saw another chuck eating, almost like they are being territorial over resources (food) rather than the space itself. Reminds me of my kids. When I give one of them something to eat, the other two say "hey, I want some too!", even though they weren't even thinking about eating until then.

written by Kristen Berry that describes all the head bobs etc and what they mean. You should try to research that, it is worth it.

Tom

That is exactly where I got it! (Back in the 1970's). It was her Thesis paper at the University of California Berkeley. If memory serves, she also hooked male Chucks up to wires and monitored their heart reactions to new females introduced into the Tyrant's territory. Judging by the heart rate, it seems the males got much more excited about a possible new conquest than by their 7 or 8 "old ball and chains"! LOL Sounds a little like Homo Sapiens, if you ask me!! ROFLMAO