Parental Care: Allegheny mountain dusky salamanders have been shown displaying parental care, something not often associated with salamanders. The female will stay with the eggs until they hatch, protecting them from predators such as carabid beetles and other dusky salamanders. Also known as oophagy, egg eating is common amongst dusky salamanders. Though this behaviour is often suppressed by parental instinct, this isn’t always the case, as mothers have been reported feeding on dead eggs to help protect the others. When one of her eggs dies, fungal growth will soon overtake it, before spreading to the living eggs and killing them. By feeding on the dead eggs, the mother hinders the growth of fungus, helping improve the other offsprings’ chances of survival. Remaining with her eggs only gives her so many opportunities to feed and by feeding in dead eggs it can help give her the energy to continue protecting the rest.
|
Sources:
"Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander." Ontario Nature, 2023, ontarionature.org/programs/community-science/reptile-amphibian-atlas/allegheny-mountain-dusky-salamander/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023. Mitchell, Joe, and Whit Gibbons. Salamanders of the Southeast. University of Georgia Press, 2010, pp. 132-36. Tilley, Stephen G. "Aspects of Parental Care and Embryonic Development in Desmognathus ochrophaeus." Jstor, Copeia, 8 Sept. 1972, www.jstor.org/stable/1442927?casa_token=tMviIZgshU4AAAAA%3ASdQ_s5QTeiEdZI0u-nIenglYiF-5i1yhEBbCR8pI1Xzn2giYjIhZsPeskDcYcMGsflol-k1-vRBkG9E2vcLm8wOaSl7oXV-MQlOrlPpSgWiHWrl_Peo. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023. |