Meeting Abstract

P3.38  Sunday, Jan. 6  The effects of tail clipping on larval Ambystoma californiense POLICH, R/P*; SEARCY, C/A; SHAFFER, H/B; Iowa State University; University of California, Davis ; University of California, Los Angeles rlpolich@iastate.edu

The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense, CTS) is a salamander native to central and coastal California. This salamander faces many threats to its survival, including habitat loss and hybridization with barred tiger salamanders from Texas (Ambystoma tigrinium mavortium). As a result, CTS is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Numerous laboratories study CTS genetics to gain a better understanding of this threatened species, which requires that tissue samples be collected from the tails of larval CTS. Because the CTS is federally protected, there are regulations in place for CTS tail clipping: researchers are only allowed to remove 5mm of tail from individuals over 50mm in length. However, these regulations are not based on prior research and the impact of tail clipping on CTS survivorship is unknown. To rectify this, we experimentally examined if tail clipping affects larval CTS snout-vent-length, mass, or survivorship. We studied these effects by removing the tails of 160 larval CTS to different lengths: a small clip (5mm), a medium clip (10mm), and a large clip (15mm). We then raised the larva in 10 cattle tanks with four representatives from each treatment group until just before metamorphosis, at which point we measured individuals. We expected that increased tail clipping would negatively impact the salamanders; however, we found that there was no difference between larva that had been tail clipped and the control group for any variable measured. We attribute our results to the regenerative abilities of the salamanders and their ability to effectively swim even with a portion of the tail missing.