Deimatic displays, where sudden changes in prey appearance elicit aversive predator reactions, have been suggested to occur in many taxa. These (often only putative) displays frequently involve different components that may also serve antipredator functions via other mechanisms (e.g., mimicry, warning signalling, body inflation). The Colombian four‐eyed frog, Pleurodema brachyops, has been suggested to gain protection against predation through putative deimatic displays where they inflate and elevate the posterior part of their body revealing eye‐like colour markings. We exposed stationary artificial frogs to wild predators to test whether the two components (eyespot/colour markings, defensive posture) of their putative deimatic display, and their combination, provide protection from predation without the sudden change in appearance. We did not detect any obvious additive effect of defensive posture and eyespots/colour markings on predation risk, but found a marginally significant trend for model frogs in the resting posture to be less attacked when displaying eyespots/colour markings than when they were not, suggesting that the presence of colour markings/eyespots may provide some protection on its own. Additionally, we found that models in a resting posture were overall more frequently attacked on the head than models in a defensive posture, indicating that a defensive posture alone could help redirect predator attacks to non‐vital parts of the body. The trends found in our study suggest that the different components of P. brachyops' coloration may serve different functions during a deimatic display, but further research is needed to elucidate the role of each component when accompanied by sudden prey movement.
Las aves son un grupo muy diverso especialmente en países del neotrópico donde desempeñan diversas funciones ecológicas de importancia para el soporte de los ecosistemas. Con el fin de describir atributos de la diversidad en una comunidad de aves y actualizar el registro de las especies se realizaron muestreos entre octubre de 2017 y diciembre de 2018 mediante transectos libres en el interior de un fragmento de bosque seco y en zonas adyacentes como áreas de cultivo y estanques piscícolas del campus principal de la Universidad del Magdalena. Cada especie tuvo una categoría según la frecuencia de registro (muy común, común, poco común, rara) y su estatus (residente, transitoria, migratoria). Durante el estudio registramos 1889 individuos pertenecientes a 87 especies y 32 familias, siendo Tyrannidae la más representativa, no obstante, la actualización del listado incluye 92 especies. En general las aves fueron poco comunes indistintamente de su estatus. En el bosque y sus alrededores se observaron 20 especies migratorias siendo Setophaga petechia la más común. El listado actualizado de la avifauna incluye 12 nuevos registros que enriquecen los valores de diversidad y reflejan los cambios de esta comunidad durante 13 años. Concluimos que la presencia de un fragmento de bosque seco tropical, sumado a otros elementos del paisaje como cultivos y estanques son importantes en el establecimiento de aves locales y migratorias, pues en ellos se encuentran variedad de recursos como alimentos y sitios de refugio, descanso y reproducción, lo cuales contribuyen con la conservación de estas poblaciones.
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