Colorado control tail lizards show signs of eating disorder (EDD) and reduced hours spent in the sun in response to the noise of helicopters and warplanes.
Megen Kepas and colleagues at the University of Utah conducted a study on lizards and found that exposure to flying Apache helicopters, Chinooks, Black Hawks, and F-16 fighter jets increased cortisol levels, causing them to move less and eat more. . In 2021, US Army pilots performed overhead flights on certain days while avoiding the test area on other days, resulting in the highest noise level at ground level during overhead flights of 112.2 decibels, equivalent to the noise level of a chainsaw one meter away. By contrast, New Scientist writes that at other times the maximum is only 55.8 decibels, which is consistent with the hum of a refrigerator.
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Observing the behavior of Colorado control-tailed lizards, which are classified as a specially protected species by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Organization, living in Fort Carson, a US military base near Colorado Springs, researchers caught a total of 82 individuals in 3 minutes. Being an all-female, asexual species, these lizards showed stress and decreased activity levels in response to aircraft noise. Then, Kepaş and his team measured the reptiles’ weights and took blood samples for hormone analysis.
According to the researchers, the increased stress levels experienced by the lizards cause their energy requirements to increase, causing them to overeat as a compensatory measure. To counteract these consequences, they recommend that the military minimize the loudest flights.
Richard Griffiths of the University of Kent in the UK says the results are interesting, but thinks it would be helpful to look at a lizard control sample that has never been exposed to aircraft noise. Griffiths notes that lizards tend to scatter and hide when disturbed, and because aircraft noise is all over the base, the lizards are probably used to it. Griffiths adds that if lizards learn to perceive noise as something non-threatening, their physiological response may be reduced and they may engage in compensatory behaviors such as eating when stressed.
Previously Focus wrote about a rare specimen of lizard fish. People believed that the species was lost forever.
Source: Focus
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