Abstract

Egg incubation temperature impacts a range of phenotypes in oviparous reptiles including sex, growth, physiology, behaviour and cognition. However, the long-term behavioural consequences of egg incubation temperature have seldom been studied. This project investigated the long-term effects of egg incubation temperature on the behaviour and cognition of bearded dragons. The first experiment tested the impact of incubation temperature on the growth and foraging behaviour of bearded dragons. The second experiment tested the personality of lizards and the third the gaze following ability of lizards. The results showed that egg incubation temperature influenced the growth and foraging behaviour of bearded dragons. While the personality of the lizards was unaffected, incubation temperature did influence the development of different behavioural traits during ontogeny. The gaze following ability of bearded dragons was unaffected by incubation temperature however the results did show for the first time that a lizard species is capable of gaze following into the distance. The overall results show that incubation temperature impacted upon some of the long-term behaviour of bearded dragons and suggests that egg incubation temperature will influence the lifetime history trajectory of bearded dragons.