Parental care, cognition and the evolution of sociality in geckos

Project Leader: Birgit Szabo, Eva Ringler

Reptiles show a large diversity of social behaviours including parental care. From crocodiles guarding their eggs and protecting their young, snakes coiling around their eggs to brood them and lizards that live in large multi-generational family groups just to name a few. Despite this diversity, research on the topic of the evolution of sociality and/or the causes and consequences of parental care are largely ignore reptiles. As such, studying reptilian parental care and how it might lead to more stable social aggregations are of great value for our understanding of the evolution of complex social group living. In this project we investigate parental care, its’ variation and consequences on offspring. We use the Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) as our model species because males and females show parental care through egg guarding and offspring protection. Furthermore, juveniles stay with their parents for several months until sexual maturity. Although Tokay geckos are not the only species of gecko that show parental care, their behaviour is well described, they are relatively easy to acquire through the pet trade and they breed well in captivity. We will quantify the individual differences in care behaviour that adults show and how good cognitive abilities are related to the quality of care that adults show. We will influence the incubation environment of the eggs as well as the social environment after hatching to characterise the effects of parental care (egg and juvenile attendance and guarding), especially looking at changes is cognitive ability, in comparison the absence of care. We will also study Tokay geckos parental care in the wild in Indonesia to better understand he natural history of this species. This project will not just provide significant new insights into the behaviour and cognition of the Tokay gecko, but will also provide a detailed examination of the care behaviour these lizards show and how this care behaviour benefits the offspring. Together with the data collected on wild individuals we will be able to understand why parental care and group living might have evolved in this species which might help us generate new hypotheses on how parental care and complex sociality has evolved in other species.

Zoo Zürich Project: Spatial Cognitive Learning in Reptiles

To survive, animals adapt to their environment – ​​from body shape to cognitive abilities. But what shapes these cognitive abilities? We can find answers to this question by studying a wide range of animal species that inhabit diverse environments and have different lifestyles. Such studies are very challenging in the wild. However, we can also study animals in near-natural settings in zoos and thus gain insights into their natural abilities. This project is a collaboration with Zurich Zoo. We are investigating the spatial learning abilities of giant day geckos from Madagascar that move freely within the Masoala Rainforest. To do this, we place feeding boxes in the animals' vicinity containing their favorite food. This allows us to test how the geckos learn to find their food. This, in turn, helps us better understand how geckos orient themselves in their complex three-dimensional environment under natural conditions.

https://www.zoo.ch/de/naturschutz-tiere/forschung-im-zoo/raeumliches-kognitives-lernen-bei-reptilien

Selected publications:

Szabo B, Ringler E (2025) Does the Post-Natal Social Environment Influence Cognitive Development in a Social Gecko? Ecology and Evolution 15:e71560. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71560

Damas-Moreira I, Bégué L, Ringler E, Szabo B (2025) Tokay geckos adjust their behaviour based on handler familiarity but according to context. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 11364. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-95936-5.pdf

Verger MO, Devillebichot M, Ringler E, Szabo B (2024) Sex-specific discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar mates in the Tokay gecko. Animal cognition 27: 55. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-024-01896-0

Probst A, Ringler E, Szabo B (2023) Prey size preference in the Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). Behaviour 161: 71–87.  https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10251

Szabo B, Ringler E (2023) Geckos differentiate self from other using both skin and faecal chemicals: evidence towards self-recognition?. Animal Cognition 26: 1011–1019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-023-01751-8

Szabo B, Ringler E (2023) Fear of the new? Geckos hesitate to attack novel prey, feed near objects and enter a novel space. Animal Cognition 26: 537–549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01693-7

Greis L, Ringler E, Whiting M, Szabo B (2022) Lizards lack a speed-accuracy trade-off when making quantitative decisions in a foraging context. Behavioural Processes 202: 104749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104749

Szabo B, Valencia-Aguilar A, Damas-Moreira I, Ringler E (2022) Wild cognition – Linking form and function of cognitive abilities within a natural context. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 44: 101115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101115