Selective phonotaxis by male wood frogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Rana sylvatica</Emphasis>) to the sound of a chorus |
| |
Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Mark?A?BeeEmail author |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA |
| |
Abstract: | Frogs and toads commonly form large choruses around suitable breeding habitat during the mating season. Although often regarded
as a constraint on the acoustic behavior of signalers and receivers, the sounds of a chorus could also serve as an acoustic
beacon that allows some frogs to locate the breeding aggregation. Attraction to chorus sounds might be particularly important
for explosively breeding frogs. In these species, which often mate just one or a few days during the year, the timing and
location of breeding aggregations can be unpredictable because their formation often depends on local climatic factors, such
as rainfall or a change in temperature. I used laboratory playback experiments to test the hypothesis that male wood frogs
(Rana sylvatica), an explosively breeding frog, exhibit positive phonotaxis toward the sound of a conspecific chorus. Males were released
at the center of a rectangular arena with a speaker positioned in each corner facing toward the release point. In a single-stimulus
experiment, more males approached a speaker broadcasting a conspecific chorus than the three silent speakers in the arena.
In a two-stimulus experiment, more males approached a speaker broadcasting a conspecific chorus compared to the two silent
speakers or a fourth speaker simultaneously broadcasting the spectrally overlapping sound of a heterospecific (R. septentrionalis) chorus. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that male wood frogs could use the sound of a chorus as a beacon
to locate a short-lived breeding aggregation. |
| |
Keywords: | Animal communication Explosive breeder Frog chorus Rana sylvatica Phonotaxis Wood frog |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|