Hierarchical decision‐making balances current and future reproductive success

Ringler, Eva; Szipl, Georgine; Harrigan, Ryan J.; Bartl-Binder, Perta; Mangione, Rosanna; Ringler, Max

doi:10.1111/mec.14583

Cited by 27 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(116 reference statements)

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“…Molecular approaches are a powerful way to tackle longstanding questions about animal behavior (Boake et al 2002). Genotyping adults and young can illuminate parental decisions about offspring distribution across the habitat (Ringler et al 2018), as well as the genetic relatedness of individuals in the same water body; kinship between offspring and care provider is often assumed but seldom confirmed. Also, parentage analyses will clarify the role of genetic relatedness in the evolution of communal nesting and whether perceived paternity impacts parental-care expression (cf.…”

Section: Multidisciplinary Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developments in Amphibian Parental Care Research: History, Present Advances, and Future Perspectives

Schulte

Ringler

Rojas

et al. 2020

Herpetological Monographs

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Despite rising interest among scientists for over two centuries, parental care behavior has not been as thoroughly studied in amphibians as it has in other taxa. The first reports of amphibian parental care date from the early 18th century, when Maria Sibylla Merian went on a field expedition in Suriname and reported frog metamorphs emerging from their mother's dorsal skin. Reports of this and other parental behaviors in amphibians remained descriptive for decades, often as side notes during expeditions with another purpose. However, since the 1980s, experimental approaches have proliferated, providing detailed knowledge about the adaptive value of observed behaviors. Today, we recognize more than 30 types of parental care in amphibians, but most studies focus on just a few families and have favored anurans over urodeles and caecilians. Here, we provide a synthesis of the last three centuries of parental care research in the three orders comprising the amphibians. We draw attention to the progress from the very first descriptions to the most recent experimental studies, and highlight the importance of natural history observations as a source of new hypotheses and necessary context to interpret experimental findings. We encourage amphibian parental care researchers to diversify their study systems to allow for a more comprehensive perspective of the behaviors that amphibians exhibit. Finally, we uncover knowledge gaps and suggest new avenues of research using a variety of disciplines and approaches that will allow us to better understand the function and evolution of parental care behaviors in this diverse group of animals.

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Section: Multidisciplinary Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developments in Amphibian Parental Care Research: History, Present Advances, and Future Perspectives

Schulte

Ringler

Rojas

et al. 2020

Herpetological Monographs

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“…Females are attracted by calling males and deposit clutches in the male's territory after a prolonged courtship (Weygoldt, 1980;Roithmair, 1994;Montanarin, Kaefer & Lima, 2011;Stückler et al, 2019). Males typically transport tadpoles from the leaf litter clutch to water bodies outside of the territory (Lescure, 1976;Ringler et al, 2013;Ringler et al, 2018), but females take over the duty when fathers disappear . Tracking has been successfully applied to study spatial behavior and navigation in this species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive behavior drives female space use in a sedentary Neotropical frog

Fischer

Ringler

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Longer-range movements of anuran amphibians such as mass migrations and habitat invasion have received a lot of attention, but fine-scale spatial behavior remains largely understudied. This gap is especially striking for species that show long-term site fidelity and display their whole behavioral repertoire in a small area. Studying fine-scale movement with conventional capture-mark-recapture techniques is difficult in inconspicuous amphibians: individuals are hard to find, repeated captures might affect their behavior and the number of data points is too low to allow a detailed interpretation of individual space use and time budgeting. In this study, we overcame these limitations by equipping females of the Brilliant-Thighed Poison Frog (Allobates femoralis) with a tag allowing frequent monitoring of their location and behavior. Neotropical poison frogs are well known for their complex behavior and diverse reproductive and parental care strategies. Although the ecology and behavior of the polygamous leaf-litter frog Allobates femoralis is well studied, little is known about the fine-scale space use of the non-territorial females who do not engage in acoustic and visual displays. We tracked 17 females for 6 to 17 days using a harmonic direction finder to provide the first precise analysis of female space use in this species. Females moved on average 1 m per hour and the fastest movement, over 20 m per hour, was related to a subsequent mating event. Traveled distances and activity patterns on days of courtship and mating differed considerably from days without reproduction. Frogs moved more on days with lower temperature and more precipitation, but mating seemed to be the main trigger for female movement. We observed 21 courtships of 12 tagged females. For seven females, we observed two consecutive mating events. Estimated home ranges after 14 days varied considerably between individuals and courtship and mating associated space use made up for ∼30% of the home range. Allobates femoralis females spent large parts of their time in one to three small centers of use. Females did not adjust their time or space use to the density of males in their surroundings and did not show wide-ranging exploratory behavior. Our study demonstrates how tracking combined with detailed behavioral observations can reveal the patterns and drivers of fine-scale spatial behavior in sedentary species.

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“…We propose a few explanations of why males of L. palavanensis chose to deposit tadpoles in the artificial pool with a predator present. The ability of adults to detect potential predators is under strong selection since depositing their offspring in rearing sites with a high predation risk results in the total loss of their reproductive input, and species with larval transport where adults do not provide any additional care after depositing their offspring must have evolved the ability to reliably detect predators (Crump, 1991;Ringler et al, 2018). This has been observed in other anuran species where parents choose to deposit their offspring in pools with conspecific and heterospecific predators due to higher selection pressures such as site availability, amount of resources, and desiccation risk (McKeon & Summers, 2013;Rojas, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter explanation seems unlikely given that many anuran species have the ability to detect predators present in water bodies, even when they have never been in contact with a particular predator (Touchon & Worley 2015;Downie, Livingstone & Cormack;. The ability of adults to detect potential predators is under strong selection since depositing their offspring in rearing sites with a high predation risk results in the total loss of their reproductive input, and species with larval transport where adults do not provide any additional care after depositing their offspring must have evolved the ability to reliably detect predators (Crump, 1991;Ringler et al, 2018). Therefore, L. palavanensis males may be able to detect the presence of dragonfly larvae in the artificial pools but the unpredictability and the possibility of not finding a tadpole deposition site represents a higher risk (Laufer, Vaira, Pereyra, & Akmentins, 2015;Spieler & Linsenmair, 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing tadpole deposition site choice in a frog with male parental care: An experimental field study

2018

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Parents have evolved a variety of strategies to minimize risks to their offspring, including complex choices regarding suitable rearing sites, based on abiotic and biotic factors, which differentially affect offspring survival. Because availability and quality of these sites are variable, parents may have to choose between immediately available lower‐quality rearing sites or extended search time. In some frog species with larval transport, parents are known to select bodies of water that are free of predators, cannibalistic tadpoles, or intraspecific competitors for larval deposition and rearing sites. We tested whether abiotic factors and the presence of predators and conspecific tadpoles affect tadpole deposition behavior in a population of smooth guardian frog, Limnonectes palavanensis, on the island of Borneo. Females lay eggs on land and males guard them until they hatch; after hatching, tadpoles climb onto the male's back and are subsequently transported to small pools of water on the forest floor, which are scarce and patchily distributed. We estimated the abundance of natural tadpole rearing sites in our study area and conducted experiments using artificial pools to test whether abiotic characteristics of these pools affect the probability of larval deposition. We also performed choice experiments to test whether males of L. palavanensis avoid pools with conspecific tadpoles or predators. Lastly, we tested whether the tadpoles of this species exhibit cannibalism. The abundance of natural deposition sites was low, and males readily used artificial pools for tadpole deposition. Males were less likely to deposit tadpoles in artificial pools located in steep areas, and males did not avoid depositing tadpoles in pools with conspecifics or with experimentally introduced predators. Males exhibited clutch‐partitioning behavior, dividing tadpoles between adjacent artificial pools. Pool availability, rather than the presence of potential competitors or predators in a pool, affects tadpole deposition decisions in this species.

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Hierarchical decision‐making balances current and future reproductive success

Cited by 27 publications

References 61 publications

Developments in Amphibian Parental Care Research: History, Present Advances, and Future Perspectives

Developments in Amphibian Parental Care Research: History, Present Advances, and Future Perspectives

Reproductive behavior drives female space use in a sedentary Neotropical frog

Factors influencing tadpole deposition site choice in a frog with male parental care: An experimental field study

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