Behavioral repeatability greatly affects the capacity of an individual to respond to varying environments. When multiple behaviors within individuals are repeatable and correlated across time or across contexts, it is termed a behavioral syndrome. However, not all behaviors exhibit the same level of repeatability, and relatively few studies have examined repeatability in amphibians. We examined the repeatability of foraging behavior in the Eastern Red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus), a color-polymorphic terrestrial salamander, following a simulated predation attempt. We tested several hypotheses: (1) Simulated predation would negatively affect foraging, increasing latency to feed and decreasing the number of prey items eaten in a fixed time period compared to a control group; (2) Because striped color morphs of P. cinereus are more aggressive, striped individuals would exhibit “bold” behavior by resuming foraging sooner and consuming more prey; and (3) Foraging behavior would be more repeatable for males. We found that the predation treatment inhibited foraging behavior, although neither morphs nor sexes differed in either forging metric. The number of prey eaten was repeatable for all groups of salamanders. Latency to feed, however, was not repeatable for control salamanders. Simulated predation induced repeatable latencies, but when morphs and sexes were analyzed separately, only unstriped and male salamanders were repeatable, suggesting characteristics of these groups related to behavioral syndromes drive this response. We speculate that the greater repeatability of the unstriped morph’s latency to feed may result from more frequent encounters with predators in the leaf litter matrix while foraging. Striped salamanders from the source population, in turn, exhibit greater territorial success, and thus may experience more variation in encounters with predators and conspecifics over the course of their lifespans. Our results illustrate the need to carefully define the behavior and subset of the population to be tested when studying behavioral repeatability or behavioral syndromes.

行为可重复性极大地影响了个人对不同环境做出反应的能力。当个体内部的多种行为在不同时间或不同环境中是可重复的并且相互关联时，它被称为行为综合征。然而，并非所有行为都表现出相同水平的可重复性，并且相对较少的研究检查了两栖动物的可重复性。我们检查了东部红背蝾螈 ( Plethodon cinereus ) 觅食行为的可重复性)，一种颜色多态的陆地蝾螈，在模拟捕食尝试之后。我们测试了几个假设：（1）与对照组相比，模拟捕食会对觅食产生负面影响，增加进食延迟并减少在固定时间段内吃掉的猎物数量；(2) 因为P. cinereus的条纹颜色变形更具攻击性，有条纹的个体会通过更快地恢复觅食和消耗更多猎物来表现出“大胆”的行为；(3) 雄性的觅食行为更容易重复。我们发现捕食处理抑制了觅食行为，尽管在任何一种锻造指标上都没有变体和性别差异。对于所有蝾螈组，吃掉的猎物数量都是可重复的。然而，对照蝾螈的进食延迟是不可重复的。模拟的捕食诱导了可重复的潜伏期，但是当分别分析变形和性别时，只有无条纹和雄性蝾螈是可重复的，这表明这些与行为综合征相关的群体的特征驱动了这种反应。我们推测，无条纹变体的进食延迟的更大可重复性可能是由于在觅食时更频繁地遇到落叶基质中的捕食者。反过来，来自源种群的条纹蝾螈表现出更大的领土成功，因此在它们的一生中可能会在与掠食者和同种动物的相遇中经历更多的变化。我们的结果表明，在研究行为可重复性或行为综合征时，需要仔细定义要测试的行为和人群子集。