Key roles of paternal care and climate on offspring survival of an Amazonian poison frog.

Sulamita M.C Da Rocha,Albertina Pimentel Lima,Igor Luis Kaefer

doi:10.1590/0001-3765202120210067

Sulamita M.C Da Rocha, Albertina Pimentel Lima + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765202120210067

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Abstract

In poison frogs (Dendrobatoidea), usually the males are territorial, care for terrestrial nests and later transport their offspring to waterbodies where they complete larval development. In some species, mothers care for their offspring or may exhibit flexible care to compensate for father absence. We conducted a multi-season field experiment with the Amazonian species Allobates paleovarzensis, in which it was possible to study the joint impact of paternal care and the El Niño climatic anomaly on offspring survival. The experiment consisted of two treatments: non-removal, and removal of the father from their territories. We observed that parental care was performed exclusively by the father, and none of the mothers of the 21 monitored nests transported the tadpoles. We also observed that the severe drought in a year under the influence of the El Niño event caused such a high mortality in all pre-metamorphic stages, that the role of parental care became irrelevant for offspring survival during that season. We found that pre-metamorphic Allobates paleovarzensis are highly vulnerable to the loss of paternal care. In addition, we showed that paternal care, when present, does not prevent offspring death under these increasingly frequent climatic anomalies.

Highlights

Parental care probably originated and continued to increase offspring survival in settings where early mortality was a frequent event (Klug et al 2012)
Strong evidence that parental care in amphibians is related to the conquest and occupation of the terrestrial environment was provided by Vági et al (2019) who showed that terrestrial species present different forms of care when compared to aquatic species
We found that parental care in Allobates paleovarzensis is performed exclusively by the father

Summary

Introduction

Parental care probably originated and continued to increase offspring survival in settings where early mortality was a frequent event (Klug et al 2012). Strong evidence that parental care in amphibians is related to the conquest and occupation of the terrestrial environment was provided by Vági et al (2019) who showed that terrestrial species present different forms of care when compared to aquatic species. Egg care is the most frequent form of parental care in these animals, and is one of the simplest care behaviours (Furness & Capellini 2019). Egg care can be performed by the father, mother or both, and is evolutionarily gained and lost faster than any other form of care (Furness & Capellini 2019). Egg care reduces or prevents the development of anomalies (e.g., Simon 1983), An Acad Bras Cienc (2021) 93(3)

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