Site Tenacity in the Terrestrial Salamandrid Salamandra salamandra

A six-year capture-recapture study allowed us to assess site-tenacity and spatial distribution of site-tenacious individuals in a population of the terrestrial, ovoviviparous Salamandra salamandra from Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, Portugal. The study area, an abandoned orchard, maintained large numbers of S. salamandra (about 400/ha). Most site-tenacious individuals were associated with tunnels in old stone walls that supported former agricultural terraces. Age was the only trait that explained site-tenacity in both sexes. The number of residents in each wall was positively related with wall length, and the sex-ratio of the residents was approximately 1:1 in every wall. Several animals spent all of the study period in the same area.