Terrestrial landscape ecology of a fossorial salamander based on long term recapture efforts

Background/Question/Methods Due to their fossorial nature, it is difficult to follow the movements of individual Ambystomatid salamanders while they are in the terrestrial environment. Radio tags, which have been the most utilized method to date, are limited by their battery life, and thus only allow individuals to be tracked for a period of up to three months. We used a combination of elastomer alphanumeric tags and a pattern identification program to follow the movements of individual California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californiense) for multiple years as they moved around the terrestrial landscape of the Jepson Prairie Preserve, Solano County, CA. We implanted elastomer alphanumeric tags beneath the skin of 2,335 newly metamorphosed salamanders and ran digital photographs of 2,960 adult and juvenile salamanders through a pattern recognition program.

Results/Conclusions This led to 691 recaptures of salamanders that we had trapped at different locations in our pitfall trap array, which surrounds both vernal pools on the preserve and stretches up to 1 km from the pools' shorelines. This recapture data is used to examine population size, the size of salamander home ranges, what factors are associated with long vs. short distance movements, and the directionality of movements across the landscape.