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Boldness is a personality trait defined as the propensity of an animal to engage in risk-taking behaviours. Boldness is often associated with social ranking, dispersal, movement, and home range in many animal species. In this study we tested if boldness was correlated with individual spatial behaviour, in a population of the Cave Salamander Speleomantes strinatii living in a subterranean habitat. Boldness was measured in a controlled environment by means of an emerging from a shelter trial, while home ranges and distances moved over two years were obtained in the wild from a spatially explicit capture-mark-recapture study. We obtained data from 13 salamanders that were captured at least 5 times (mean 7.23; range 5-11). As expected, there was a highly significant and negative correlation between individual risk taking behaviour and home range overlap with conspecifics (rs = 0.84; p = 0.005). This pattern could be explained by differences in habitat physical quality or in its available resources, but more research is needed to better understand this behavioural pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new Tetradactylus from Udzungwa Mountains is described on the basis of one adult male and one adult female. The species has tridactyle forelimbs with the longest toes bearing four scales, didactyle hind limbs, 14 dorsal longitudinal row scales, four femoral pores and frontoparietals in broad contact. This combination of morphological characters distinguishes the species from the similar T. eastwoodae, a South African endemic. The new species has smooth head scales, six ventral rows, and the male possess on either side of the vent a prominent claw-like scale lacking in the female. The species has been found in swampy montane grasslands at about 1880 m. It is syntopic with three other specialised grass lizards: Ellenberger's long-tailed Seps (Tetradactylus ellenbergeri), Zambian grass lizard (Cordylus macrolepis), and the Grass-top skink (Mabuya megalura). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which described the application of a non-lethal method to obtain samples of gastrointestinal parasites from terrestrial salamanders. The use of Yomesan®, a commercial human anthelminthic prepared from niclosamide, in the study is mentioned. Two experimental trials were conducted. The first involved 28 salamanders treated with .25 milligram/gram of the suspension. The second one involved 20 salamanders treated as in the first case but were inspected hourly up to six hours. The first experiment revealed four tapeworms in four different cages. The second one showed 10 salamanders excreted gastrointestinal parasites.