Herpetological Conservation and Biology 13(1):33–46. Submitted: 29 September 2017; Accepted: 8 January 2018; Published 30 April 2018. THE ECOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CUMBERLAND DUSKY SALAMANDER (DESMOGNATHUS ABDITUS): DISTRIBUTION AND DEMOGRAPHICS SAUNDERS S. DRUKKER1,2, KRISTEN K. CECALA1,5, PHILIP R. GOULD1,3, BENJAMIN A. MCKENZIE1, AND CHRISTOPHER VAN DE VEN4 1Department of Biology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee 37383, USA 2Present address: Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, Florida 32312, USA 3Present address: School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio 43210, USA 4Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee 37383, USA 5Corresponding author, e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract.—Understanding the biology of rare or uncommon species is an essential component of their management and conservation. The Cumberland Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus abditus) was described in 2003, but no studies of its ecology, distribution, or demographics have been conducted. The southern Cumberland Plateau is recognized as an under-protected landscape, and recent studies on other stream salamanders suggest that even common species have small population sizes and limited distributions. To describe the ecology of this rare and unstudied species on the southern Cumberland Plateau, we conducted landscape scale occupancy surveys and focused capture-mark-recapture studies on D. abditus. We found that D. abditus had a limited distribution, and that clusters of populations were split by approximately 85 km. Their distribution coincided with small streams located in coves, and they were locally restricted to small waterfalls and exposed sandstone bedrock. Regional summer survival estimates revealed low bimonthly survival between 0.44–0.51.