Socioecology of a terrestrial salamander: juveniles enter adult territories during stressful foraging periods
Jaeger RG. 1994. Socioecology of a terrestrial salamander: juveniles enter adult territories during stressful foraging periods. Ecology. 76(2):533-543
When adults of a species defend feeding territories, juveniles may benefit from access to those territories during periods when prey decline between territorial spaces. Adults may either deny or allow such access, thus impacting the foraging success of the juveniles. We examined a dense population of the terrestrial red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) in which male and female adults hold territories (cover objects on the forest floor that act as patches of moisture and prey during rainless periods) that should be attractive to juveniles as the surrounding leaf litter dries. The purpose of our research was to determine whether adults of P. cinereus exclude juveniles from their territories, as they do consexual adults, and to explore how juveniles respond to adult territoriality.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Jaeger, Robert
- Units
- SHEN
- Keywords
- behaviour, Ecology, Terrestrial