Growth, Age at Maturity, and Age-Specific Survival of the Arboreal Salamander (Aneides lugubris) on Southeast Farallon Island, California

Abstract

Growth, age at maturity, and survival are life-history parameters that provide important information for understanding population dynamics. We modeled growth and age at maturity for an island population of Arboreal Salamanders, Aneides lugubris, using snout–vent length (SVL) growth intervals from a 4-yr capture–mark–recapture study fit to the von Bertalanffy growth interval model. We estimated annual survival as a function of SVL using a multistate open robust design model, and computed age-specific survival using results from the von Bertalanffy growth model. Arboreal Salamanders have indeterminate growth that slows with age from hatchling size (24.4-mm SVL) to the mean adult (asymptotic) size of 66.0-mm SVL. Age at maturity is 2.69 yr, and average adult age is 8–11 yr. Annual survival increased with age from 0.363 in age 0 to 0.783 in ages >4 yr. Our results provide the first estimates of life-history parameters for this species and indicate similarities to other terrestrial salamanders from low-elevation Mediterranean climates.