Rules of engagement for adult salamanders in territorial conflicts with heterospecific juveniles
✍ Scribed by Debra L. Lancaster; Robert G. Jaeger
- Book ID
- 104651542
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1995
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 554 KB
- Volume
- 37
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0340-5443
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Coexisting species within a guild have the potential for resource overlap and consequently for interspecific competition (e.g., interspecific territoriality). When the adults are of different sizes, which frequently is the case in terrestrial salamander communities in eastern North America, competition may occur between juveniles of the larger species and adults of the smaller species. Adults of the relatively small redbacked salamander (Plethodon cinereus: up to 13 cm total length) defend intra-and intersexual territories on the forest floor, and they are broadly sympatric with the larger P. glutinosus (up to 21 cm total length). Although individuals of the two species share the same forest floor habitat, we found significantly fewer juveniles of P. glutinosus sharing territories with 336 samesize adults of P. cinereus than would be expected by random chance alone. In laboratory experiments, residential adults of P. cinereus were as aggressive toward juvenile intruders of P. glutinosus as they were toward adult conspecific intruders. Therefore, adults of P. cinereus appear to defend territories against juveniles of P. glutinosus, illustrating how interference competition may depend on the symmetry of sizes between the species.