Territorial behavior in the salamander Plethodon Albagula.

Abstract

Plethodon albagula, the western slimy salamander, was examined during the non-breeding and breeding seasons for three aspects of territorial behavior: self-advertisement, aggression toward intruders, and ability to exclude intruders from artificial feeding territories in the laboratory. Individuals exhibited no ability to distinguish among substrates marked with tap water, conspecific fecal pellets, and self-produced fecal pellets. I concluded that this species does not recognize individual odors found in fecal pellets and may use vision or an unknown method of self-advertisement in territories. When paired as residents and intruders, resident salamanders performed more aggressive behavior than intruders in the form of biting and moving toward the other animal. Intruders spent more time in submissive behavior, moving up the side of the testing chamber, than residents. Data collected during the non-breeding and breeding seasons indicated that male-male aggression escalated during the breeding season as competition for mates increased, whereas aggression between males and females decreased at this time. Female-female aggression remained low during both seasons. From these date I concluded that residents do show aggression toward conspecific intruders and have a high probability of excluding these intruders from their territories. In summary, this research provides laboratory evidence for territorial behavior in Plethodon albagula.