|
Archives of The Cold Blooded NewsThe Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological SocietyVolume 31, Number 2; February, 2004 |
||
|
Monitors and Play Behavior .01% A Turtle hurdle: 100 years Judge, Can You Spare a Lizard Close Encounter Gator mailed to Colo. greets postal workers Chinese Water Dragon Florida Scientists Seek to Trap Giant Lizards Man-Made Form of Lizard Hormone Use Of Growth Rings For Aging Turtles Female Salamanders Punish Wayward Mates PREVIOUS ISSUES 2004 index 2003 Index 2002 Index Earlier Issues About the Cold Blooded News CHS Home Page |
Female Salamanders Punish Wayward Matesby Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery NewsReprinted from Herp Digest, Vol.4, No.17, December 21, 2003.Dec. 15, 2003 -- Unfaithful male salamanders returning home might find their female partners waiting with rolling pins, new research reveals. In a study slated for publication in the journal Animal Behavior, behavioral ecologist Ethan Prosen of the University of Louisiana in Lafayette shows that red-backed female salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) sexually intimidate their Casanova partners by punishing them with bites and aggressive postures. "We do not know of any other animals where the females use this coercion and the males also use coercion," Prosen told Discovery News. It known that male salamanders, eager to monopolize paternity, get violent toward female partners that have visited other males. But so far no scientist had predicted that females would likewise get aggressive. In the autumn courtship season (mid-October) and near the end of the spring courtship season (mid-April), Prosen collected from the wild several established pairs of salamanders -- those sharing the shelter of one rock -- as well as single males and females. In the laboratory, he placed the amphibians in different containers. By letting each male spend five days alone or with another female, he forced the male salamanders to be polygynous or monogamous. In the autumn courtship experiment, paired females were far more hostile toward partners that had been with other females. "They increased the amount of time spent threatening the fickle males, spending more time in a posture known as ATR (All-Trunk-Raised), in which they lift their entire length off the ground in the effort to look bigger. In some instances the females escalated to biting the males," Prosen said. During the spring courtship experiment, however, the females did not punish the unfaithful partners. Prosen believes the change in their behavior reflected a different priority, as they were preoccupied with locating suitable nesting sites. Since the male salamanders do not directly contribute to care for the offspring, it isn't clear why the females want them to be monogamous. Copyright © 1998 - 2006, Colorado Herpetological Society. All rights reserved. | ||
Site designed and hosted by:
WebSpinners.com
(info@webspinners.com)