Predation on a Northern Curlytail Lizard by a Loggerhead Shrike

Authors

Henry T. Smith, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Park ServiceFollow
Walter E. Meshaka Jr., State Museum of Pennsylvania
Richard M. Engeman, USDA-APHIS-Wildlife ServicesFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

September 2006

Comments

Published by Journal of Kansas Herpetology Number 19 (September 2006).

Abstract

Leiocephalus carinatus armouri is a well established, introduced, exotic species in Florida (Meshaka et al. 2004. The Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida, Krieger Publishing Co., Malabar, FL. 155 pp.; Smith and Engeman 2004a. Florida Field Nat. 32:107-113; Meshaka et al. 2005. Southeastern Nat. 4:521-526); however, very few vertebrate predators of this species have been documented within its introduced range (Smith and Engeman 2003. Herpetol. Rev. 34:245- 246; Smith and Engeman 2004a. op cit.; Smith and Engeman 2004b. Herpetol. Rev. 35:169-170; Dean et al. 2005. Herpetol. Rev. 36:451). Only two avian species in Florida have so far been recorded, the Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) (Smith and Engeman 2004b. op, cit.), and the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) (Smith et al., In press. Herpetol. Rev. 37). Here we report predation of a juvenile L. c. armouri by a third avian predator in Florida, the Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus).