Hunting leads to a leap in lizards

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Traditional hunting seems to boost lizard populations in Australia. Rebecca Bliege Bird at Stanford University, California, and her

colleagues found that numbers of sand monitor lizards (_Varanus gouldii_) in the Western Desert were largest where there was most hunting — lizard burrows were present in 13% of hunted plots

but in only 7% of plots with least hunting. Aboriginal hunters burn small patches of land, thus promoting habitat that favours _V. gouldii_ and apparently outweighing the loss of individual

lizards to Aboriginal dinner plates. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Subscribe to this journal Receive

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AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Hunting leads to a leap in lizards. _Nature_ 502, 596 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/502596a Download citation

* Published: 30 October 2013 * Issue Date: 31 October 2013 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/502596a SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this

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