Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
2nd International Symposium on Biodiversity Research, Rize, Türkiye, 18 - 20 Kasım 2020, ss.268
The Artvin Lizard, Darevskia derjugini (Nikolsky, 1898), is distributed in the Black Sea coastal
region of Turkey (Provinces of Trabzon, Rize and Artvin), Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia.The vertical
distribution of the species is up to 1700 m a.s.l. It is classified as “near threatened” in the IUCN red List
of Threatened species. In this study, we investigated age structure, age at sexual maturity and lifespan (as
demographic life-history traits) as well as body size of a Darevskia derjugini population (n=30, 13 males, 17
females) from Murgul, Artvin, using skeletochronology. Our findings indicated that age upon attaining
sexual maturity was three years for both sexes in this high-altitude population. The maximum longevity
was seven years. There was no statistically significant difference between male and female individuals in
terms of average age. Female individuals were significantly larger than male individuals. As reported for
many lizards, we found a significant positive relationship between age and body size within each sex of
Artvin lizard. The information given about some life history characteristics of a near-threatened species in
this study may contribute to effective conservation management in the future.