Age-Dependent Enclosure Use in Juvenile Chinese Crocodile Lizards, Shinisaurus crocodilurus crocodilurus
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Interesting study and findings, but more clarity is needed in the text--both in detail of methods and in quality of writing.
Abstract, line 18-20. I understand what you are trying to say, but give this line another pass for grammar and clarity.
Introduction, line 26. What does “provide process to” mean?
Introduction, line 29-31. This sentence construction is a little clumsy. Maybe replace “which” in line 30 with “and”
Introduction, line 35. You bring up thermoregulation here in the Intro and again quite a bit in the discussion, but you never really specifically address surface temperatures on each of the “resources.” Did you have a way of determining if/how different parts of the habitat were different temperatures? If not, I think you have to be careful about introducing thermoregulation so heavily.
Introduction, line 48, 50. Double check some of your comma use.
Introduction, line 67-68. Clumsy text here on the final sentence. Maybe change “of” in line 67 to “for”?
Materials and methods, line 71. Were the subjects housed individually?
Materials and methods, line 73. If you are indicating a cubic measure, then your notation on cm3 should be in superscript
Materials and methods, line 74. I am not familiar with the c. notation/abbreviation in “c. 6 cm”, but I assume it is used here correctly
Materials and methods, line 78-79. I assume the division into proportion of the six “resources” discussed below takes these size increases, both in total habitat size and branch size into account?
Materials and methods, line 92. You refer to six “resources,” but these seem more like substrates/microhabitats. I assume they are considered resources because they represent different opportunities to thermoregulate, but you may want to consider clarifying what makes these areas “resources.”
Materials and methods, line 95-99. Were observations collected from video? Live observer?
Materials and methods, line 95-99. I’m a little confused by the data collection method, partially by use of the word “focal.” To make sure I understand: 1. All subjects are housed individually; 2. Three times each day, each subject’s location within the habitat was recorded—but did this observation occur for all subjects at the same times on any given day? Within the “three time periods”, did you only perform one instantaneous sample during the entire three-hour period, or did you record multiple data points within those blocks? If it’s the latter option, what were the lengths of your intervals?
Materials and methods, line 107. Was proportion of resources only calculated from birds-eye view, or did you also collect any information about vertical space usage? The foliage looks pretty thick—if you just used one overhead camera angle, was you ever unable to distinguish a subject’s location within the habitat?
Materials and methods, line 121-124. I suggest cutting this section and the later one in results about tonic immobility.
Results, line 126. Was there a range of proportionate area across all 8 habitats, or do these values represent mean proportions?
Results, line 131. I mocked up some data following your methodology, and I was getting F2,14 on my ANOVA table for the single-factor reports (though I did get F4,28 for the interaction). Can you doublecheck your df (though I don’t have your actual data, and it’s possible I’ve made an error somewhere)? I’m assuming you’ve just made a copy-paste error for your df but used the right values in your stat tests; otherwise, you’ll have to recheck your calculations.
Results, line 133. You’re missing a comma between your reported F and p-values.
Results, line 141. Which post-hoc tests?
Results, line 175-176. As mentioned above, cut this mention of tonic immobility.
Discussion, line 181. Again, the project and “resources” as written seem to be spatial or related to substrate only. You should provide more and better evidence that these different zones are thermal resources.
Discussion, line 188. If the change in resource use is growth related, and we expect the animal to gain size between each of the three seasons, then why do you think a significant difference wasn’t found between the first and second period? Or between the first and third period? What makes the difference between May/June and Aug/Sept so different?
Author Response
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Reviewer 2 Report
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Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
