Effectiveness of mating call playbacks in anuran call monitoring: A case study of three‐striped pond frogs(Rana nigromaculata)

Abstract

Abstract We studied the effectiveness of mating call playbacks on call monitoring of three‐striped pond frogs (Rana nigromaculata). Playback experiments were conducted between 2100 to 0030 at 15 sites located at Chungwon, Chungbuk, and Yeongi, Chungnam, in May 2005. We recorded call responses of 25 males to two different call playbacks, (i) single mating calls from a single male and (ii) chorus mating calls from five males, by randomly presenting the calls with a 15 min‐gap between the two playbacks. We compared the number of response calls of the focal males for three min before, during, and after the playbacks. Five of 25 males were silent before stimulus presentation, but all the males emitted calls after the playbacks. The number of calls in response to single playback calls significantly differed among the three playback periods, where males gave more calls during the playback than before or after the playbacks. In addition, subject males presented significantly more calls to single call playbacks th...