Background color preference of Amphibian Rana dybowskii

Abstract

Background color may affect the welfare of the brown frog Rana dybowskii in captivity. To evaluate the perching platform color and feeding platform color preferences of brown frogs at day and night, a total of 1200 brown frogs kept in 12 square plastic buckets (100 brown frogs per bucket) and eight plastic plates with different background colors (black, red, orange, yellow, green, baby blue, cyan, and blue) were used in this study, and the background color preference of brown frogs was measured by counting the number of frogs on the different colored plastic plates at different time points (7.5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 60 min, 120 min, 240 min, and 360 min) after replacing the square perching platforms with the experimental perching platforms and the control perching platform. The results show that brown frog counts on the plastic plates was significantly affected by the background color, daytime versus nighttime, and feeding versus not feeding (P < 0.05). In addition, brown frog counts on the black background was usually the largest, whether it was day or night, and regardless of whether there were mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) on the plastic plates, which indicated that brown frogs prefer the black backgrounds. It is reasonable to recommend using more black backgrounds for brown frogs R. dybowskii in captivity, which would provide a more suitable living environment for brown frogs, and undoubtedly have a positive role in promoting the brown frog farming industry.