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Behav Processes

Title:		Do poison frogs recognize chemical cues of the other sex or do they react to cues of stressed conspecifics?
Author(s):		Schulte LM; Rossler DC;
Address:		"Trier University, Department of Biogeography, Universitatsring 15, 54286 Trier, Germany. Electronic address: Lisa_Schulte@gmx.de"
Journal Title:		Behav Processes
Year:		2013
Volume:		20130801
Issue:
Page Number:		32 - 35
DOI:		10.1016/j.beproc.2013.07.016
ISSN/ISBN:		1872-8308 (Electronic) 0376-6357 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Although anuran communication primarily takes place acoustically, chemical cues are also often used for intra- and intersexual communication in frogs. In the present study we analyzed the behavior of the poison frog Ranitomeya variabilis when presented chemical cues of same-sex or opposite-sex conspecifics. Chemical cues were obtained by keeping a single frog on a moist paper towel for about 47h. Afterwards two paper towels were offered to a test animal, one containing the chemical cues, the other containing rainwater only. We ran trials presenting female cues to males, males cues to males as well as male cues to females. The results of the trials were not significant in terms of intersexual communication. The overall response revealed a clear avoidance strategy which leads us to the assumption that disturbance cues unintentionally occurred during the experiment. The rather small size of the containers used to obtain chemical cues prior to the trials probably lead to confinement stress which consequently caused increased urination containing stress hormones that were detected by the test animals. This is the first proof of disturbance cues and their effects in adult anurans. The results of this study do not allow conclusions about inter- or intrasexual chemical communication of R. variabilis, but they allow implications and revisions for future experiments on this topic"
Keywords:		"*Animal Communication Animals *Cues Female Male Ranidae/*physiology Recognition, Psychology/physiology Sex Attractants/*physiology Sexual Behavior, Animal/*physiology Smell/physiology Chemical communication Disturbance cues Mate recognition Ranitomeya var;"
Notes:		"MedlineSchulte, Lisa M Rossler, Daniela C eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Netherlands 2013/08/06 Behav Processes. 2013 Nov; 100:32-5. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.07.016. Epub 2013 Aug 1"