Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on February 24, 2008
Behavioral Ecology 2008 19(3):621-626; doi:10.1093/beheco/arn012
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The effects of perceived mortality risk on habitat selection in a terrestrial salamander
a Princeton University, Box 845, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA b Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Address correspondence to A.M. Roberts. E-mail: amrobert{at}princeton.edu.
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Abstract |
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Animals select microhabitats based on food availability, physiological cost, and mortality risk relative to other available habitats. The best habitat selection models take into account a trade-off between predation risk and foraging success. We investigated the effect of simulated predation on microhabitat use in light of differences in prey availability in Plethodon cinereus, a small terrestrial salamander which displays nighttime plant-climbing behavior. We tested the hypothesis that plant climbing is a predator avoidance behavior in P. cinereus by causing autotomization of salamanders’ tails to simulate attempted predation and subsequently tracking them with fluorescent powder. We found that, on average, simulated predation increased the maximum height climbed. To ensure that salamanders were not climbing to access greater numbers of prey, we measured prey abundance on and above the ground and found more prey on the ground than on plants. Finally, we conducted observations of unmanipulated individuals of P. cinereus and found that weather variables affected the height climbed and males climbed higher than females, perhaps due to lower energetic costs in males. We conclude that salamanders use the plant habitat as a refuge from predation despite reduced foraging potential and increased physiological cost.
Key words: microhabitat, Plethodon cinereus, predation risk, tail autotomy.
Received 22 August 2007; revised 4 January 2008; accepted 7 January 2008.