Size-Based Dominance Hierarchy In One Of Two Sympatric Cryptic Pacific Skinks (Emoia impar And Emoia cyanura)

Emoia impar and Emoia cyanura are two morphologically cryptic Pacific skinks that have different preferred thermal micro-habitats but similar geographic range and overlap. Previously individuals have been noted to display a size-based dominance hierarchy at favored basking sites, though this behavior was not specified between species. I found that only one of the two species, E. impar, naturally presents this size-based dominance hierarchy in areas of high population density. Neither species exhibit the hierarchy in low population density areas. No evidence was found to suggest that the presence of this hierarchy allows one species to exclude the other.