Upland Movement Patterns and Habitat Selection of Adult Eastern Spadefoots (Scaphiopus holbrookii) at Cape Cod National Seashore

Abstract

There is a paucity of empirical results regarding many aspects of the movement ecology and upland habitat use and preferences of the Eastern Spadefoot Toad (Scaphiopus holbrookii), an ephemeral, wetland-breeding anuran that is rare throughout a number of states in the northern portion of its range. We radio-tracked 45 adult Eastern Spadefoots in a coastal dune ecosystem at Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts, United States and assessed a number of attributes related to the upland movement ecology and habitat preferences of this species. The mean maximum distance that we found for each of the 19 successfully tracked individuals, immediately post-breeding from the breeding wetlands, was 130.4 ± 28.0 m with a range of 3 – 449 m. Paired logistic regression results indicated that individuals selected areas closer to deciduous shrub edges and areas with greater percent cover of 1) ground-running pitch pine (Pinus rigida) branches at a 1-m scale, 2) deciduous shrubs at a 1-m scale, and 3) reindeer lichen (Cladonia sp.) at a 5-m scale compared to randomly selected locations. We recorded surface activity during 22/24 (∼91.7%) nocturnal survey nights and during 77/127 (∼60.6%) toad-nights; the presence of rainfall was the only significant predictor (positive) of surface activity. Our results provide an assessment of upland movement patterns and habitat preferences that will help guide the development and implementation of effective conservation and management strategies for this regionally rare species.