Western green lizards (Lacerta bilineata) do not select the composition or structure of the ecotones in Northern Italy

The conservation status of the Western green lizard (Lacerta bilineata) in Italy is probably not favourable. In the Po plain the species is rapidly declining outside of the protected areas, mainly because of the loss of hedges and natural vegetation in general. In this paper, we analysed the preference by Western green lizard on the ecotone features in a large population settled in Northern Italy, in order to detect the habitat characteristics of the ecotones that could explain the occurrence of the species. We monitored a Western green lizard population by using the line-transect method from May to September 2006-2007 in a regional park (24.000 ha) located along the Adda river, and we investigated species habitat requirements by comparing presence/absence plots through compositional analysis and multi-model inference. Out of the 25 variables considered, the only two differing between used and not used ecotones were related to soil type (litter soils were preferred) and wood layer (autochthonous natural woods were preferred), suggesting that Western green lizard used the ecotonal zones of the park irrespective of their structure and composition. This result has important implication on management and conservation of the species in Northern Italy, as the occurrence of the species appears to be favoured by the presence of ecotones itself rather than by their quality