Illustrating a free, open-source method for quantifying locomotor performance with sprinting Aegean wall lizards

Locomotion is an important characteristic of many animals’ natural history. With the increasing availability of high-speed video cameras, videography is a powerful tool for analyzing fast or subtle motions with unprecedented resolution. However, the programs currently available for analyzing these videos are either dauntingly time intensive or prohibitively expensive. We have developed a free, open-source video analysis program, SAVRA, that enables the quick capture of scaled position data. Here we demonstrate its use with an analysis of several videos of the Aegean wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii). We hope making this program freely available will facilitate the analysis of video data across taxa, not just in laboratory settings but also in natural contexts.