ISSN: 2639-216X
Authors: Ahmim M and Ziane M*
Animal cannibalism is a practice well known to scientists, it consists of partially or entirely eating a living individual of the same species by necessity or by instinct. Although originally thought to be abnormal behavior, it has now been recorded in over 1300 species across a diverse group of taxa, ranging from protists and invertebrates to humans. This type of behavior exists in amphibians in different forms and it is observed in 12 families of toads, 7 families of salamanders and 1 family of gymnophionas (Lissamphibians) and this phenomenon is known in natural populations of Salamandridae larvae. The only representative of this family and genus Salamandra in North Africa is Salamandra algira with five subspecies, of which only one is reported for Algeria (Salamandra algira algira) and cannibalism among Salamandra algira larvae has been described for Morocco at Jbel Tazzeka in the Middle Atlas where gigantism has also been observed in certain larvae whose size can vary from 25 to 74 mm. In this study we report for the first time the practice of cannibalism in Algeria in S.A. algira and we also observed gigantism in some larvae. Regarding salamanders, there is still a lot to do because their distribution and ecology are not well known.
Keywords: Cannibalism; Amphibians Salamandridae; Gigantism; Algeria; S.A. Algira
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