Neglecting the call of the wild: Captive frogs like the sound of their own voice

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 7; p. e0181931
• Main Authors: Passos, Luiza Figueiredo, Garcia, Gerardo, Young, Robert John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 21.07.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acoustics; Amphibia; Amphibians; Analysis; Animal behavior; Animal communication; Animal social behavior; Animal vocalizations; Animals; Anura - physiology; Behavior; Biodiversity; Biology and Life Sciences; Calling behavior; Captivity; Communication; Conservation; Conspecifics; Enclosures; Endangered & extinct species; Experiments; Forest floor; Frogs; Life sciences; Male; Males; Motivation; People and Places; Phonotaxis; Physical Sciences; Playback; Polyvinyl chloride; Populations; Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology; Social Behavior; Sound; Straightness; Vocalization, Animal - physiology; Voice - physiology; Voice communication
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181931

Acoustic communication is highly influential in the expression of social behavior by anuran amphibians, transmitting information about the individual's physical condition and motivation. We studied the phonotactic (approach movements) responses of wild and captive male golden mantella frogs to conspecific wild and captive playback calls to determine the impact of captivity on social behaviour mediated by vocalisations. Calls were recorded from one wild and two captive populations. Phonotaxis experiments were then conducted by attracting M. aurantiaca males across a PVC grid on the forest floor or enclosure floor to a speaker. For each playback, the following parameters were recorded to define the accuracy of phonotaxis: (1) number of jumps; (2) jump angles; (3) jump distances; (4) path straightness. During this experiment we observed that wild frogs had a similar behavioural (phonotaxis) response to calls independent of their source while frogs from Chester Zoo had a significantly stronger response to calls of other conspecifics held separately at Chester Zoo. The lack of appropriate phonotaxis response by captive bred frogs to the calls of wild conspecifics could have serious negative conservation implications, if the captive bred individuals were released back to the wild.