Behavioral Ecology of the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus

Abstract

Prey animals must balance the need to find food and reproduce with the need to avoid being eaten by predators to maximize their fitness. The Red-backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus, uses a variety of behavioral and morphological mechanisms to avoid and survive predator encounters. One such mechanism is the ability to lose its tail (autotomy) during an attack and eventually regrow it. Though effective, this ability may also negatively affect the salamanders if they alter behaviors following the attack in ways that could reduce feeding, locomotion, or reproduction. Previous studies have explored altered behavior following tail autonomy but have not differentiated between attacks with and without tail loss. There is some evidence that the intensity of a predator’s attack and subsequent stress response can influence behavior. In this study, we investigated this idea by observing how various behaviors may be affected by predation attempts both with and without tail autotomy. We performed behavioral assays to study escape distance, exploratory movements, cover use, and eating habits in individuals assigned to either a control, attacked with autotomy, or attacked without autotomy group. Results indicate that there is a difference between behaviors following attacks with and without tail autotomy. There was a significant effect of treatment on the escape distance of the salamanders and behaviors following attacks without autotomy were generally more comparable to the control.