Chorusing Behaviour in the Lusitanian Toadfish: Should I Match My Neighbours' Calling Rate?

Abstract

AbstractChoruses have been described mostly in birds, anurans and insects but have been poorly studied in fish. Research in batrachoidid (toadfishes) species suggest vocal facilitation among neighbouring males, but whether chorusing fish present more complex interactions is unknown. In this study, we test the hypothesis that chorusing fish males compete actively to increase attractiveness to females. We first describe vocal interactions in natural choruses of Lusitanian toadfish males. Our analysis found positive correlations between the calling rates of neighbouring males in several occasions. However, we also found that males that showed an overall low vocal activity throughout the observation period exhibited peaks of increased calling activity when neighbours decreased their calling rate, suggesting an opportunistic maximisation of attractiveness. We further test with playback experiments how toadfish males adjust calling activity relative to their neighbours'. We observed that males silent at the time of the playbacks but who had an overall high vocal performance tended to start calling when exposed to playbacks in contrast to low‐activity males. Playback experiments further showed that males initially calling at a high rate adjust their calling rate according to the neighbour's vocal activity level, that is, they increased calling rate when exposed to a high calling rate and decreased it when confronted with a low calling rate. However, males calling at a low rate did not significantly alter their calling rate when presented with a low (similar) or higher calling rate, probably due to temporary physiological and/or ecological constraints. We argue that Lusitanian toadfish males tend to optimise calling effort in relation to their neighbours when they are actively advertising. Further studies are necessary to better understand vocal behaviour with increased chorus size.