Long Distance Homing in the Newt Taricha Rivularis

Twitty, Victor C.; Grant, David; Anderson, O.A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.51.1.51

Cited by 69 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Given these high levels of dispersal and colonization, it would be surprising if locating a pond at 10 m presented a great difficulty for tungara frogs. The use of olfaction to locate breeding sites has been widely reported in amphibians (e.g., Savage 1961;Oldham 1967;Joly and Miaud 1993), as has directed dispersal towards breeding sites from distances up to several kilometers (Twitty et al 1964;Oldham 1967;Dole 1968;Sjögren-Gulve 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of inter-pond distance on the breeding ecology of tungara frogs

2000

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Habitat and resource distributions can influence the movement and aggregation of individuals and thus have important effects on breeding behavior and ecology. Though amphibians have been model systems for the study of breeding behavior and sexual selection, most studies have examined breeding behavior within a single pond. As a result, little is known about how inter-pond distance affects breeding amphibians. We studied the effects of inter-pond distance on the breeding ecology of the tungara frog, Physalaemus pustulosus, in replicated pond arrays in which distance was varied from 0 to 50 m. We predicted that male site fidelity and male aggregation within arrays would increase with inter-pond distance, and that the opportunity for mate choice and oviposition site selectivity by females would decrease with the distance between ponds. Male site fidelity did increase with inter-pond distance. However, male aggregation decreased with distance, such that males tended to be more evenly spaced among ponds when ponds were farther apart. The opportunity for mate choice by females, measured as the number of males within the phonotactic radius of females, also decreased with inter-pond distance. Each of these three responses was consistent with a threshold effect between 5 m and 10 m in inter-pond distance. This threshold corresponded to the maximum distance at which females in laboratory choice experiments exhibited phonotaxis toward the "whine" call of a tungara male, suggesting that phonotactic limits may play an important role in tungara movements and spacing patterns. The distribution of egg masses among ponds, a potential correlate of oviposition site selectivity, did not vary with inter-pond distance. Multiple egg masses deposited on the same night were significantly overdispersed in all distance treatments, implying that females may select oviposition sites to avoid conspecific egg masses over distances of at least 50 m. Collectively, these results demonstrate that inter-pond distance may indeed affect amphibian breeding and movement behavior, and that consideration of multiple habitat patches and their spatial distributions can provide new insights into even the most well-understood mating systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of inter-pond distance on the breeding ecology of tungara frogs

2000

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“…Direct evidence for homing success in the field corroborating navigational abilities is still unavailable for this species. The newt Taricha rivularis is another candidate species for navigation as individuals were shown to home successfully following 13-km displacements, whereas the migratory range of specimens of this population did not exceed 2.6 km (Twitty 1959;Twitty et al 1964Twitty et al , 1967aTwitty et al , 1967b. Thus, homing was accomplished from an area of unfamiliarity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Homeward orientation of displaced newts (Triturus cristatus, Lissotriton vulgaris) is restricted to the range of routine movements

Sinsch

Kirst

2015

Ethology Ecology & Evolution

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Initial orientation of crested newts Triturus cristatus and smooth newtsLissotriton vulgaris was measured following passive displacement to arenas placed at 12 test sites 0.213-24.2 km distant from the breeding pond. Newts were transported by car without visual and olfactory outward journey information, but had full access to local orientation clues at the release site during the night and early morning before testing. Within the area of previous migratory experience, the initial directional choice of both species was significantly directed to home. Outside the area of familiarity, the initial orientation was indistinguishable from random in all but one site each at 3 and 20 km distance, respectively. We suggest that short-distance orientation was probably based on olfactory beaconing and on a learned spatial map integrating visual and olfactory information. The failure of homeward orientation following longdistance displacement indicates the absence of a spatial map which allows for extrapolation into unknown areas. The geomagnetic features of the study area include regional-scale irregularities probably impeding the derivation of reliable information from a geomagnetic map.

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“…More remarkable is the ability of T. rivularis to find its way home over long distances. Animals displaced the maximum length of the experimental stretch, roughly 2.5 km, or to adjacent streams, about 3.3 km to Jim Creek and more than 4.2 km to Danfield Creek, are recaptured in high percentages in their home area (Twitty et al, 1964). Terrestrial trapping of marked animals indicates that the home range of these newts extends only over a small area of the hillside adjacent to the breeding site (Twitty et al, 1967b).…”

Section: Population Structure Of Taricha Rivularismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The neighborhood is taken as the length of stream containing 95% of the recaptures, approximately two standard deviations about the mean of the recapture distribution or a total length of 4 X SD X 45.7 meters. Over the ten year sampling period, largest neighborhood sizes range from about 0.5 to 1.5 km while average neighborhood sizes range from about 0.4 to 1.0 km, While non-displaced homing experiments give us an idea of neighborhood size, series of animals captured at one station, or in one portion of Pepperwood Creek, marked, and released either in another portion of Pepperwood Creek or even in another stream reveal the great fidelity which these newts have for their homing breeding neighborhoods (Twitty, 1961(Twitty, , 1966Twitty et al, 1964Twitty et al, , 1966 10' 15' Figure 7, Twitty, 1961;Figure 2, Twitty et al, 1964). More remarkable is the ability of T. rivularis to find its way home over long distances.…”

Section: Population Structure Of Taricha Rivularismentioning

confidence: 99%

POPULATION SUBDIVISION AND GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN THE RED‐BELLIED NEWT, TARICHA RIVULARIS

Hedgecock¹

1978

Evolution

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Long Distance Homing in the Newt Taricha Rivularis

Cited by 69 publications

References 2 publications

Effects of inter-pond distance on the breeding ecology of tungara frogs

Effects of inter-pond distance on the breeding ecology of tungara frogs

Homeward orientation of displaced newts (Triturus cristatus, Lissotriton vulgaris) is restricted to the range of routine movements

POPULATION SUBDIVISION AND GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN THE RED‐BELLIED NEWT, TARICHA RIVULARIS

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