Caudate counterpart to anuran release call??

[Azhael]

I´m not sure this belongs here, although the species i´m going to use as an example is C.pyrrhogaster, because i intend it as a general thing for newts.

My C.pyrrhogaster group contains three males, two of which are in full breeding mode, and the third is on its way, which means that the two females and the "unsexed" juvenile are starting to feel stalked.
Today i saw one of the males pursuing the juvenile, and then the juvenile (whom i suspect might be a young male) turning across the male and tail-fanning faintly in a Triturus short of way (the tail not being close to the body as happens in Cynops or Lissotriton in the normal breeding behaviour).
Thinking about it i´ve realised this is a behaviour i´ve seen in other species. My young adult C.orientalis does it when the male harashes him, and my T.dobrogicus last year´s young adult does the same when his father becomes frisky.
I´m starting to think this might be a behaviour akin to the well known anuran release call, which for those unfamiliar, is an special and distinct kind of sound that males make when amplexed mistakingly by another male.
My reason to believe so is that in all cases, the pursuing males lost interest after this behaviour appeared, and that the tail-fanning is substantially different than the courtship type, even in T.dobrogicus.

It happens to a much lesser extent with females, and in my experience only with young or uninterested females.

I had previously thought this behaviour was linked to agression, but i now think it might well be a code for "do not tail-fan at me you idiot, you are wasting everyone´s time".

I was wondering if anyone else had given this a thought, because i think it´s defenitely very interesting.

 

[Joost]

may-be you're right, it could be something like that. Sparreboom described something like this behaviour in C. e. popei
(Sparreboom, M. 1996: Sexual interference in the sword-tailed newt, Cynops ensicauda popei (Amphibia: Salamandridae). Ethology 102, 672-685

 

[Azhael]

Although very fascinating i don´t think that article is talking about the same thing. What i´ve seen is not sexual interference in which two males compete and trick each other to keep each one from successfully mating, but what appears to be a sign from males and sexually inmature/inactive females that tells sexually active males that he is aiming for the wrong target. This is a behaviour that has been very well described and studied in anurans, but i´ve never seen any commentary about the caudate version, if it exists.

 

[Joost]

the article is indeed about interaction, but also describes a little part between two males.

 

[End]

I've seen this behavior many times in the last couple of months in my Cynops Orientalis group (3 females 5 males 1 unsexed) , i also think this can be a sort of release call
i've also seen very young unsexed M.a.apuanus doing some sort of tail fanning during a feeding session

 

[Azhael]

I´m pretty convinced about this now. My 3 adult male C.p.sasayamae are now in breeding season, and competing for the uninterested females and the juvenile. I´ve observed the juvenile display the already mentioned behaviour a few times. It´s specially intense with the last male that became sexually conditioned, since his attempts to breed are being more insistent and desperate.

 

[Mark]

It could just be a stress response. My males start fanning to thin air if I shine a bright light on them at night.

 

[Azhael]

But do they tail fan in the normal fashion, or do they use a different tail fanning method?
My observation is that the tail fanning used in those situations descrived above, is distinctly different than the normal, courtship type.

 

[Mark]

The "stress" fanning I see is different to courtship fanning. More of a tail curling/rolling, tip flicking action rather than the full on fanning of courtship.

 

[Azhael]

Sounds like the kind of behaviour i´ve observed.
I think i´ve only observed it as a response to an eager male, which could also be a response to the stress of the situation.
Thinking about it, some anurans also have a distinct sound for stressfull situations...

 

[OZIRIS]

Do you want another behaviour ?? I don't know whether this has been described here or not.

One of my 2-month-old juvenile that lives in a cork bark piece has pursued and scared a 9-months-old juvenile to throw it out the cork bark. And it worked...the first time at least. Amazing to see that little guy running behind the other. O_O

Regards