Mate guarding, intrasexual competition and mating success in males of the non-territorial lizard Lacerta schreiberi

Schreiber's green lizard Lacerta schreiberi showed a high degree of overlap in individual home ranges which the males did not actively defend. The number of mates and estimated mating success of males were not related to the size of male home ranges. The population sex ratio was skewed towards males and a promiscuous mating system was detected; individual males mated with 0–4 females. Mating frequency, number of mates, and mating success of males were positively correlated with snout-vent length. Moreover, there was assortative mating by size. Males guarded individual mated females for several hours, keeping in physical contact with them, and attacking approaching males. Male contest success was related to body size, but not to home range size. The winning males mated more often with more females and probably had higher reproductive success. However, males could not guard more than one female simultaneously and they rarely monopolized individual females which were polyandrous.