Pulse-number discrimination by Cope's gray treefrog (<i>Hyla chrysoscelis</i>) in modulated and unmodulated noise

Vélez, Alejandro; Linehan-Skillings, Betsy; Gu, Yuwen; Sun, Yuting; Bee, Mark A.

doi:10.1121/1.4820883

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In this study, the two variables with the highest values for species differentiation were call count and call series duration (see Table 2 ). It is known that call parameters could be influenced by the individual’s condition and various environmental factors, especially temperature ( Kuczynski et al, 2010 ; Vélez & Linehan-Skillings, 2013 ). However, according to Schneider (2004) , call series duration, number of calls per call series and number of pulses per call were all unaffected by air temperature, which varied between 9 °C and 20 °C.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not so cryptic–differences between mating calls of Hyla arborea and Hyla orientalis from Bulgaria

Lukanov

2024

PeerJ

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Anurans are among the most vocally active vertebrate animals and emit calls with different functions. In order to attract a mate, during the breeding season male frogs produce mating calls which have species-specific structure and parameters, and have been successfully used to resolve issues in taxonomy and phylogenetic relations. This is particularly useful when closely related taxa are concerned, as many species are morphologically almost identical, but still their status is well-supported by molecular and genetic data, suggesting the existence of mechanisms for reproductive isolation. Such is the case for treefrogs from the Hyla arborea group, which are now recognized as several distinct species. The present study aims to establish differences in call parameters between the European tree frog, Hyla arborea, and the Eastern tree frog, Hyla orientalis, which both occur on the territory of Bulgaria. Using autonomous audio loggers, calls from six sites (three in the range of H. arborea and three in the range of H. orientalis) were recorded between 7 p.m. and 12 a.m. during the breeding season in 2020–2023. The following parameters in a total of 390 mating calls were analyzed: call count, pulse count, call series duration, call period, peak (dominant) frequency, entropy. Results indicated that sites formed two distinct groups, which corresponded to the known distribution ranges of H. arborea and H. orientalis. The first two components of the PCA explained 71% of the total variance, with variables call count, call series duration, peak frequency and entropy being most important for differentiation between the sites. This study presents the first attempt to differentiate between the calls of these two sister taxa, which both fall within the “short-call treefrogs” group, and results are discussed in terms of known data for mating calls in Hyla sp., as well as limitations and future perspectives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not so cryptic–differences between mating calls of Hyla arborea and Hyla orientalis from Bulgaria

Lukanov

2024

PeerJ

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“…In a second experiment, we examined whether patterns of selectivity for stimuli varying in call rate, call duration, or call effort (the product of call rate and duration) were similar in gravid females tested during the breeding season and non-gravid, hormone-treated females. Previous work with Cope’s gray treefrogs has established that females prefer displays having faster call rates, longer call durations, and higher call efforts [50-54]. Our direct comparisons of gravid, breeding females and non-gravid, hormone-treated females permitted us to interpret behavioral selectivity with respect to known species-typical patterns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Progesterone and prostaglandin F2α induce species-typical female preferences for male sexual displays in Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

Ward

Love

Baugh

et al. 2015

Physiology & Behavior

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Endocrine systems play critical roles in facilitating sexual behavior in seasonally breeding vertebrates. Much of the research exploring this topic has focused on the endocrine correlates of signaling behavior in males and sexual proceptivity in females. What is less understood is how hormones promote the expression of the often complex and highly selective set of stimulus-response behaviors that are observed in naturally breeding animals. In female frogs, phonotaxis is a robust and sensitive bioassay of mate choice and is exhibited by gravid females during the breeding season. In stark contrast, females exhibit low phonotactic responsiveness outside the breeding season, but the administration of hormones can induce sexual proceptivity. Here we test the hypothesis that manipulation of a minimal set of reproductive hormones—progesterone and prostaglandin F2α—are capable of evoking not only proceptive behavior in non-breeding females, but also the patterns of intraspecific selectivity for male sexual displays observed in gravid females tested during the breeding season. Specifically, we investigated whether preferences for faster call rates, longer call durations, and higher call efforts were similar between breeding and hormone-treated females of Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis). Hormone injections induced patterns of selective phonotaxis in non-breeding females that were remarkably similar to those observed in breeding females. These results suggest that there may be an important contribution of hormonal pleiotropy in regulating this complex, acoustically-guided sexual behavior. Our findings also support the idea that hormonal induction could be used to evaluate hypotheses about selective mate choice, and its underlying mechanisms, using non-breeding females.

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“…In these environments, females recognize and discriminate among potential males using information encoded by temporal features of advertisement calls (Bush et al, 2002; Gerhardt, 1994; Gupta & Bee, 2021; Nityananda & Bee, 2011; Schul & Bush, 2002; Ward et al, 2013a). However, chorus noise and overlapping calls can interfere with signal recognition and discrimination (Bee, 2008; Bee & Schwartz, 2009; Lee et al, 2017; Vélez et al, 2013a; Vélez & Bee, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informational Masking Constrains Vocal Communication in Nonhuman Animals

Gupta

Bee

2022

Preprint

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Noisy social environments constrain human speech intelligibility in two primary ways: spectro-temporal overlap between signals and noise reduces speech audibility (energetic masking) and noise interferes with processing the informative features of otherwise audible speech (informational masking). To date, informational masking has not been investigated in studies of vocal communication in nonhuman animals, even though their behavioral decisions frequently depend on extracting information from vocalizations in noisy aggregations. In this study of a treefrog, in which females chose mates in noisy breeding choruses, we investigated whether informational masking can disrupt the processing of signal information in the contexts of species recognition and sexual selection. We observed significant reductions in response to the vocalizations of a potential mate when they were broadcast concurrently with other biologically relevant sounds designed to reduce or eliminate energetic masking. These effects were more pronounced when competing sounds were present in a particularly salient frequency range for processing vocalizations. Among responsive subjects, however, performance in signal recognition and discrimination tasks remained largely unchanged. These results confirm that informational masking is a general communication problem among humans and other animals and suggest it may be a crucial yet understudied source of selection shaping the evolution of animal communication.

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Pulse-number discrimination by Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) in modulated and unmodulated noise

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

Not so cryptic–differences between mating calls of Hyla arborea and Hyla orientalis from Bulgaria

Not so cryptic–differences between mating calls of Hyla arborea and Hyla orientalis from Bulgaria

Progesterone and prostaglandin F2α induce species-typical female preferences for male sexual displays in Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

Informational Masking Constrains Vocal Communication in Nonhuman Animals

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