Biology of Amphibians

Does any have Biology of Amphibians by William Duellman? What are your thoughts on it's content? I just purchased a copy for a project on salamanders (marbled/fire) I am doing for my animal behavior class. Thanks!!

Well if you have access to herp journals and animal behavior you might want to search those as well. There's a number of recent studies on salamander behavior that probably aren't in books yet.

I don't own that book, but I have (forget the exact title) one co-authored by Dr. Stebbins, I think it's "A Natural History of Amphbians". It's pretty good, but it does have more stuff about North American species.

Hi Zachary,

I have a copy of the book. What is your question? In general its a quite book, but as the topic is broad it can´t get into every detail. Therefore have to go into secondary literature on the precise species or even the precise object.

Uwe

I have a decent sized herp library with just as many obscure publications as there are major ones, and I have barely used this book. Perhaps when I actually start writing my thesis I will use it more! The two times I do you use it was when I did some newspaper articles on salamander breeding behavior and migration, of which I could not find a better source. For a more practical source of information I highly recommend "A Natural History of Amphibians", by Stebbins and Cohen. I have learned things from that book I have not seen anywhere else.

If you expect to have a career in biology, BOA is a must have. Otherwise I think there are other books you can spend your money on and get useful information out of before you get BOA.

(Message edited by Colchicine on March 03, 2004)

Hi All,
In general I do recommend the BOA but if you are just starting to collect books to learn about amphibians then you should start with the Stebbing and Cohen book and then move onto the BOA. I have used the BOA a fair amount but as it is more of a text book it is not for everyone.
Ed

Well, I am looking for info on the breeding of marbled and fire salamanders, and I wanted it for my collection, so I hope it works for both

Hi Zach,
If you recieved your marbles as adults then you may have a lot of trouble getting them to breed. You would have been much better off aquiring larva and rearing them in your conditions so they would imprint on your conditions.
Even if the marbles cycle, getting courtship and spermataphore deposition in wc adults no matter how long they have been in captivity is very difficult. You may need to contact your vet and resort to hormonal treatments to get egg deposition.
As marble salamanders reach sexual maturity very quickly usually between one to three years, (closer to one year for the males, closer to two or three years for the females) there really isn't any reason to mess with adults unless you really want to try a challange. I was unable to get wc adult marbles to spawn but larva reared in the same conditions readily spawned.
Ed

Thanks Ed, but I am doing a report on marbled/fire breeding and rearing of offspring for animal behavior, but thats for the info!

Well I remember a phylogenetic study that showed fire salamanders were basal to other salamanders in their family so you could use that to show that the marbled behaviors that differ were probably derived. Don't know that much about european species though.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Edward Kowalski (Ed) wrote on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 20:10 :</font>

"if you are just starting to collect books to learn about amphibians then you should start with the Stebbing and Cohen book and then move onto the BOA."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
I would say just the opposite. I got both, and BOA is the one I consult more often. It has been more useful to me. Actually the most useful book of all salamander related books I have ever read.

When was BOA published? A couple people I know have pointed out little things that have changed or been learned since it was published.

First published in 1986. The new forward is in 1994. The forward talks about how the book should be updated and lists where to go for more info.

Aren't most books out of date as soon as they are published?