In this study we looked at the stamina of western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) infected and not infected by the malarial parasite, Plasmodium. The western fence lizard or blue-belly lizard is a lizard commonly found in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Northern Mexico, and the surrounding areas. Malaria is a parasitic infection that is transmitted by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito bite introduces the parasites from the mosquito's saliva into a person or animal’s blood. The parasites travel to the liver where they mature and reproduce. Once mature the effects and symptoms of malaria is common to that of the flu virus and can resemble other conditions such as gastroenteritis, sepsis and other viral diseases. The symptoms of malaria may include joint pain, headache, vomiting, fever, shivering, jaundice, hemolytic anemia, hemoglobin in urine, retinal damage and convulsions. …show more content…
The test was held on 15 infected and 15 non-infected lizards. The lizards were tested on the distance (meters) they could run in 2 minutes. The null hypothesis for this experiment was that there will be no difference in the stamina of lizards infected by malaria verse lizards not infected by malaria and the alternate hypothesis for this experiment was that the lizards not infected by malaria will have better stamina and be able to run farther than the lizards infected by malaria. The data recorded from this study are as