They incubated nine scincid lizard eggs in cooler temperatures (up to 23.5 degrees) and 12 in warmer temperatures (up to 29.5 degrees), the same temperatures they are exposed to in the wild. Once hatched, the lizards were placed in enclosures that contained two potential hiding places, one of which had the entry blocked by a see-through barrier.

Researchers did not change the position of the hiding places during the experiment, allowing the lizards to learn the location of the unblocked hide-out.

Each hatchling was then placed underneath a small plastic cover between the two hiding spaces and when the cover was removed, a researcher ''scared'' the lizard into action by lightly touching its tail with a paintbrush. Lizards that were able to find the open hiding place within 30 seconds were considered to have made a successful escape.

''Overall, hot-incubated lizards achieved higher learning scores than did cold-incubated lizards, and the number of errors they made decreased more from the first to the second half of the trials …'' the report found.

''Hence, factors such as maternal nest-site selection and climate change affect not only the size, shape and athletic abilities of hatchling reptiles, but also their ability to learn novel tasks.''