Tadpoles modulate antipredator responses according to the abundance of vegetation experienced during the embryonic stage

Lucon‐Xiccato, Tyrone

doi:10.1111/jzo.12671

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 42 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…Growing evidence suggests that past experience shapes how prey respond to acute predation risk (e.g. Brown et al 2015;Lucon-Xiccato 2019); defined as the level of risk perceived at a precise moment in time (e.g. a prey detects an alarm cue or sees a predator).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the threat-sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis on mate competition in two wild populations of Trinidadian guppies

Chuard

Grant

Ramnarine

et al. 2020

Behavioural Processes

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the threat-sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis on mate competition in two wild populations of Trinidadian guppies

Chuard

Grant

Ramnarine

et al. 2020

Behavioural Processes

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Perception of con- and heterospecific injury cues in tadpoles of dendrobatid, ranid and bufonid frogs (Anura)

Lipkowski,

Almeida,

Schulte

2023

Evol Ecol

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Predator-prey interactions are vital for organismal survival. They shape anti-predator mechanisms and often depend on sensory abilities. Tadpoles use chemical cues, such as injury cues (alarm cues), to assess predation risks and modify their life-history, morphology, and behaviours accordingly. However, the prevalence of chemically mediated anti-predator responses in species with distinct ecological niches (e.g. within phytotelmata) remains unknown, hindering our understanding of the ecological significance and evolution of alarm substances. Therefore, our study aimed to investigate chemically mediated anti-predator responses in tadpoles of two Neotropical poison dart frogs, Ranitomeya sirensis and Epipedobates anthonyi (and compare their responses to two Palearctic model organisms, Rana temporaria and Bufo bufo, which are known to utilise alarm substances). Through behavioural bioassays, we exposed predator-naïve tadpoles to extracts of each species (i.e. con- and heterospecific cues), including water as a control (i.e. five treatments per species). We assessed changes in their activity before and after stimulus introduction. Our results show that E. anthonyi did not respond to any of the stimuli, whereas R. sirensis displayed increased activity levels exclusively in response to conspecific cues, but not to heterospecific cues. With this, our findings suggest a specialized recognition system in R. sirensis, potentially directed at conspecific competitors but likely unrelated to anti-predator mechanisms. In contrast, E. anthonyi may be insensitive to injury cues or utilize alternative sensory modalities to respond to acute predation events. This study sheds light on the chemical alarm response system of Neotropical poison dart frog tadpoles, providing foundational understanding of how dendrobatids react to injury cues. It prompts questions about the ecological significance and evolutionary implications of chemical communication in species facing extreme resource limitation during development and underscores the importance of comparative research for understanding chemical communication in diverse aquatic ecosystems.

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Vegetation cover induces developmental plasticity of lateralization in tadpoles

2019

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Lateralization of cognitive functions influences a large number of fitness-related behaviors and shows, in most species, substantial variation in strength and direction. Laboratory works and field data have suggested that this variation is often due to adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Strong lateralization should be favored in some ecological conditions, for example, under high risk of predation. For anuran tadpoles, the presence of cover affects predation risk, with tadpoles being more exposed to predators in environments with reduced cover. We tested the hypothesis that the amount of cover experienced early in life affects lateralization in the edible frog, Pelophylax esculentus, tadpoles. We exposed embryos and larvae to high or low vegetation cover environments. For half of the subjects, the treatment was constant whereas the remaining subjects were switched to the opposite treatment after hatching. In agreement with the theoretical expectation, tadpoles exposed to low vegetation cover for the entire development were more lateralized and showed a stronger alignment in directionality of lateralization compared with tadpoles exposed to high vegetation cover. This indicates a possible role of natural variation in vegetation abundance and developmental plasticity as determinants of between-population and between-individual differences in lateralization. We also found that shifting from high to low vegetation cover treatments and vice versa disrupted lateralization alignment, suggesting that developmental trajectories for this trait are determined at the embryonic stage and need environmental stability to be fully expressed.

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Tadpoles modulate antipredator responses according to the abundance of vegetation experienced during the embryonic stage

Cited by 3 publications

References 42 publications

Exploring the threat-sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis on mate competition in two wild populations of Trinidadian guppies

Exploring the threat-sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis on mate competition in two wild populations of Trinidadian guppies

Perception of con- and heterospecific injury cues in tadpoles of dendrobatid, ranid and bufonid frogs (Anura)

Vegetation cover induces developmental plasticity of lateralization in tadpoles

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