Both environmental fluctuations and physical characteristics of amphibians (e.g., body size, sex, or age class) affect their growth. Eastern Red-backed Salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, are often used as indicators of habitat quality in eastern North American forests. Most of the research concerning growth in this species has focused on the influence of body size, rather than on other external or temporal factors that might affect growth. We performed a mark–recapture study spanning multiple years and seasons to compare the growth of individuals of P. cinereus across temporally variable environmental conditions. Unsurprisingly, the most significant factor affecting growth was body size. Growth also varied seasonally and annually, with greater growth of salamanders during a mild winter and more growth in 2014 than 2013. Sex-age class did interact with yearly fluctuations as evidenced by juveniles, but not adults, having reduced growth in 2014. However, color morph did not have an effect on growth. We concluded that fluctuating environmental conditions, as well as body size, exerted effects on the salamanders' growth. This study adds to our understanding of the factors affecting growth in terrestrial salamanders and provides context for past and future studies of body size and abundance in this ecologically important species.

Prey animals avoid and survive encounters with predators through morphological and behavioral mechanisms, but these defenses can negatively affect fitness when individuals forgo foraging and reproductive opportunities. Although many studies have focused on the costs associated with antipredator behavior, few have evaluated how that behavior changes immediately following a nonlethal interaction with a predator. Understanding how differences in species ecology (i.e., autotomy and regeneration capabilities) influence antipredator behaviors prior to and following a predation attempt could provide insight into how animals cope with living among predators. In this study, we evaluated the antipredator and compensatory behaviors of Northern Zigzag Salamanders (Plethodon dorsalis) to determine how attempted predation affects behavioral responses to perceived predation risk. In a laboratory setting, we performed behavioral assays evaluating escape distance, exploratory movements, cover use, eating habits, and temperature preferences on individuals assigned to attacked (tail autotomy) and control treatments. We found differences in antipredator and compensatory responses between the two treatments, indicating that responses change relative to previous experiences with predators and present risk of predation. Our results indicate that attacked individuals had lower thresholds to elicit a behavioral response relative to control individuals and compensated for loss of resources and decreased locomotive ability by selecting warmer-temperature microhabitats. This study provides insight into how individuals cope with living amongst predators and emphasizes the need to explore behavioral changes following predation.

The ability of plethodontid salamanders to jump has been recognized for over 100 yr, but the mechanics of the jump are only now being elucidated. These salamanders often autotomize tails that can be as much as a third of the body mass. Tail loss alters jump performance in some lizards and therefore may also alter jump performance in the plethodontid salamanders. In this study, we used a high-speed camera to record subjects representing three species of plethodontid salamanders jumping with and without tails. The kinematic analyses indicate that take-off velocity, take-off angle, and maximum height are similar between salamanders with and without tails. Jump characteristics are highly variable within the individual for all salamanders (with or without tails) and this indicates that salamanders do not need to produce the same jump consistently to succeed in their primary task of escape. Better coordination might exist for arboreal plethodontid salamanders that use jumping for purposes other than escape. Future studies should focus on the in-air dynamics and landing kinematics of the salamander, as the tail plays a large role during in-air balance and landing control in other tetrapod species that jump.

Considerable difficulty has been associated with the taxonomy of the genus Graptemys (Map Turtles and Sawbacks) over the last 50 yr, likely attributable to the relatively recent divergence of lineages and morphological variation within species. One trait that has been inconsistently defined has been the costal scute pattern of Graptemys flavimaculata, with many authors describing various blotch or ring patterns, or both. This study seeks to describe and quantify costal scute pattern via ring presence throughout the range of G. flavimaculata using both contemporary (field-captured) and historical (museum specimen) sources. Comparisons were made for contemporary individuals and historical specimens of both sexes throughout the geographic range. The pattern of all blotches dominated both sources (89.8%), whereas historical specimens had a higher rate of ring presence (15.1%) compared with contemporary individuals (8.6%). For contemporary data, ring presence was lower in headwater reaches (4.1–4.8%), but higher in middle to lower reaches of the river system (8.9–35.5%). Pattern variability might be attributable to environmental selection, incubation temperatures, genetic divergence, or a combination thereof. For historical specimens, geographic patterns observed were incongruent to contemporary data and likely attributable to geographic sampling bias. Considerable temporal and sexual bias was also observed in the specimen record as a result of species protections in the early 1990s and sampling methodology, respectively.

Upper respiratory tract disease (URTD), caused by Mycoplasma agassizii, has been deemed a threat to populations of Mojave Desert Tortoises, Gopherus agassizii. Previous work on URTD has focused on serology and visual health examinations to determine the extent of this disease in some natural tortoise populations. Here, we present the first range-wide study of the presence of the pathogen, M. agassizii, in Mojave Desert Tortoises. We detected M. agassizii in tortoise populations throughout the Mojave Desert, with notable differences in prevalence of M. agassizii among sampling sites within tortoise genotypes and sampling years. Analyses of three genetic markers in the M. agassizii genome indicated very low nucleotide diversity and no relevant spatial structuring of Mycoplasma haplotypes. We use published lines of evidence to discuss the roles of rare transmission events and long-term mycoplasmal persistence in individual hosts on tortoise URTD dynamics.

Examination of the gastrointestinal contents of museum specimens is routinely used as a method for assessing diet in a wide variety of reptiles. However, this method might be biased toward detecting prey items that are less digestible and larger in size because these food items are digested more slowly. In this study, we used fixed videography on free-ranging Puff Adders (Bitis arietans) as a comparative, data-collecting technique to assess the accuracy of the traditional method of examination of the gastrointestinal tracts of museum specimens as a measure of diet. The data-collecting method affected our measures of diet: Analyses relying on museum specimens showed a much narrower diet breadth compared to fixed videography, and measures of mean relative prey mass were more than three times larger using museum specimens compared to fixed videography. Our findings demonstrate that data collected through fixed videography and examination of museum specimens provide different perspectives of a snake's diet because of the biases associated with museum specimens. As a result, the use of museum specimens to assess diet should be interpreted cautiously and with knowledge of these biases, as the technique might only reveal certain aspects of a species trophic ecology. In particular, we suggest that the routine use of methods such as examination of museum specimens and palpation of live snakes might have led to a biased interpretation of the feeding ecology of ambush-foraging snakes.

The remnant populations of Gharials, Gavialis gangeticus, are now confined to the large, deep rivers of northern India and Nepal. In lowland Nepal, the populations are restricted to a few stretches of the Narayani–Rapti and Karnali–Babai river systems. Periodic censuses of the wild populations have been made over the past 12 yr. Here, we present population trends of Gharials in the Narayani, Rapti, and Babai rivers based on these surveys. The results indicate that the combined numbers of adults and subadults have been gradually increasing since 2005, but the numbers of adults are low and female biased, with very few males recorded from all study sites. In 1978, Nepal established a captive breeding center in Chitwan National Park, from which captive-bred animals have been periodically released 4–7 yr after hatching, at which time the animals are about 1.5 m total length. The detection of hatchlings and subadult classes that are smaller than these released animals in the rivers indicates that there is natural recruitment. Therefore, collecting all nests for ex-situ breeding might not be the best strategy until more rigorous field assessments are completed to determine the relative contributions of captive-bred versus natural recruitment. We suggest that more effort should be channeled toward field assessments, including mapping and monitoring habitat availability, habitat management to ensure necessary environmental flows to create sand banks and deep pools, and research to better understand the ecology and behavior of Gharials in Nepal's rivers.

Among the 25 Hylodes species described to date, only three species are known to have nuptial tubercles on the thumb, H. fredi, H. phyllodes, and H. pipilans. Careful analysis of the populations of these three species led us to discover a fourth, undescribed species from the Atlantic Forest of Serra do Mar in the State of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil. The new species exhibits light-colored, oblique lateral stripes and belongs to the Hylodes lateristrigatus group. The new species differs from its congeners by possessing the combination of three traits: (1) pointed nuptial tubercles, distributed in an elliptical area at the base of the dorsal surface of the thumb of males; (2) medium-sized; and (3) parameters of the advertisement call. Molecular analysis of a mitochondrial gene sequence (16S) strongly corroborates the description of phenotype by showing that the new species is genetically distinct from H. fredi, H. phyllodes, and H. pipilans. We also provide information on the natural history, behavior, and conservation status of the new species.

We describe a new species of Sphaenorhynchus from highland forest habitats in the Reserva Biológica de Pedra Talhada, an Atlantic Forest remnant of northeastern Brazil. The new species is diagnosed by having a snout–vent length of 24.8–29.3 mm in males and 26.6 mm in the only available female; snout truncate in dorsal view, protruding in lateral view; vocal sac single, subgular, moderately developed, extending to the middle of the pectoral region, longitudinal folds present; dorsolateral black line from the tip of snout extending posteriorly beyond the eye to gradually disappear on the flanks; white glandular subcloacal dermal fold present; vomerine, premaxillary, and maxillary teeth present; and advertisement call with 2–3 pulsed notes (3–6 pulses each) with a duration of 0.19–0.24 s, a frequency range of 526.3–4438.8 Hz, and a dominant frequency of 2250–3000 Hz. It is the eighth species of the genus that occurs in northeastern Brazil.

The Philippines possess a remarkable species diversity of amphibians and reptiles, much of which is endemic to this Southeast Asia island nation. Lizard diversity in the family Gekkonidae is no exception, with more than 80% of the country's gecko species endemic to the archipelago, including the entire genus of False Geckos (Pseudogekko). This small radiation of diminutive, slender, arboreal forest species has been the focus of several recent phylogenetic and systematic studies that have highlighted the prevalence of undocumented species concentrated in several geographical regions within the archipelago. Newly available genetic data have led to the revision of two species complexes in the genus Pseudogekko, one of which is the focus of this study. We describe a new member of the Pseudogekko brevipes complex, which represents the first population from this species group discovered in the Luzon Faunal Region. Because of the species' secretive nature, rarity, or restricted geographic range, it has gone undetected despite recent biodiversity surveys targeting the central and northern portions of the Bicol Peninsula. We evaluate both morphological and genetic data to support the recognition of the new species. All three members of the P. brevipes complex have allopatric distributions situated within three of the archipelago's distinct faunal regions. The recognition of the new species increases the total number of taxa in the genus Pseudogekko to nine species.