Familiarity Affects Interactions between Potentially Courting Territorial Salamanders

An animal's territory may serve as a mating site, nesting site, feeding area, or refuge from predators (Brown and Orians, 1970). Such territories may be defended passively through mechanisms such as pheromonal markers (e.g., Plethodon cinereus: Jaeger, 1986) or actively by calls (e.g., birds: Moller, 1991), visual displays (e.g., Anolis aeneus: Stamps, 1978), or fighting (e.g., Rana catesbeiana: Howard, 1978). Allowing conspecifics to have access to a territory may not be detrimental, if the intruder does not compete for the same resources as the holder of the territory, and may even be beneficial by increasing mating opportunities or indirect fitness among kin (Hamilton, 1964a, 1964b). Territorial residents often act more aggressively toward unfamiliar individuals than toward those