How aggressive calls of a Neotropical treefrog vary among different levels of social tension?

Abstract

The treefrog Pithecopus nordestinus emits aggressive calls during agonistic interactions between males, but how these vocalizations vary between contexts with different levels of aggression remains unknown. Herein, we compared the acoustic parameters of aggressive calls emitted during physical disputes and out of fight contexts. The aggressive calls emitted during physical clashes (Fighting Calls) presented a repetition rate, duration and number of pulses significantly higher than those emitted out of fight contexts. Our results expand the knowledge about acoustic repertoire of Phyllomedusidae treefrogs and contribute to the understanding of the effects of social tension on the vocal behavior of anurans.

Efficiency of photo identification of inguinal color patterns of Pithecopus gonzagai (Anura: Phyllomedusidae) from northeastern Brazil

“…Many arboranan species ave distinctive co or patterns on t e an s groins, or legs; these patterns do not change and thus, are suitable to track individuals in markrecapture studies (e.g., Kenyon et al 2009, Del Lama et al 2011, Kim et al 2017. We choose the arboreal phyllomedusid Pithecopus gonzagai Andrade, Haga, Ferreira, Recco-Pimentel, Toledo, and Bruschi, 2020[previously included with P. nordestinus (Caramaschi, 2006) (Caramaschi 2006, Vilaça et al 2011, Andrade et al 2020] as a target species because its morphological, ecological, and ethological features make it an excellent model for behavioral studies (Brasileiro et al 2020(Brasileiro et al , 2021. First, like most phyllomedusids, P. gonzagai has contrasting and colorful inguinal patterns (Figure 1) which make it highly suitable for individual identification iveira et al 2012).…”