Abstract
Plethodontid salamanders usually exhibit territorial spacing patterns and behaviors. Previous works suggest that plethodontids from Vancouver Island, Canada lack strong territoriality. In one Vancouver Island species, Aneides vagrans, salamanders may even be found in the field in small aggregations. We investigated preferences of A. vagrans for occupied vs unoccupied cover objects and for cover objects occupied by conspecifics of different age/size classes. We also tested A. vagrans preferences for conspecific vs heterospecific salamanders in an attempt to determine if the lack of territoriality by A. vagrans is species-specific and perhaps related to habitat segregation. A. vagrans did not avoid occupied cover objects or exhibit a preference for occupied vs unoccupied sites. Age class did not affect cover object choice. A. vagrans did not avoid heterospecifics that exhibit the highest degree of resource overlap (Plethodon vehiculum), which we believe might be attributable to a benign and resource-rich habitat, although alternative explanations exist. A. vagrans did avoid syntopic newts (Taricha granulosa), though this is probably due to toxic newt skin secretions.
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Acknowledgements
This project was completed in compliance with the guidelines of the University of Victoria Animal Care Committee. The Provincial Government of British Columbia provided permission for field collection and subsequent use of animals. Many thanks to T. Davis for sharing his knowledge and salamanders. B. Hawkins and C. Hawryshyn provided helpful comments on a previous version of this work, and D. Hosken, M. Tejedo, and an anonymous reviewer provided helpful comments on this version. Funding for this study was provided by an operating grant to PTG from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The manuscript was written while TWJG was funded by a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) grant (SNF 31-00-64004.00) to H.-U. Reyer. This work was done as partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Bachelor of Science, Honors degree to TWJG.
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Garner, T.W.J., Gregory, P.T. Tests of aggregative preferences of wandering salamanders (Aneides vagrans). acta ethol 9, 43–47 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-006-0014-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-006-0014-6