Male movement patterns and bioacoustic activity of the Western Cuban Grassfrog, Eleutherodactylus varleyi (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae)

Abstract


 
 
 
 In this study, we examined movement patterns, vocal activity, and variation in advertisement calls at individual and populational levels in a population of Western Cuban Grassfrogs (Eleutherodactylus varleyi) at the National Botanical  Garden of Cuba in July and September in 2007. Males appear to be very sedentary with peaks of movement early in the night and just before dawn that could be related with the search of calling sites and diurnal retreats, respectively. We detected eight patterns of frequency modulation of advertisement calls for note 1 and six for note 2. Patterns II and VI were the most frequent for note 1 and note 2, respectively. Note duration was the only acoustic parameter that was significantly variable among individuals for note 1, whereas the maximum frequency and rise time were signifi- cantly variable within individuals for note 2, suggesting that the latter is more reliable for distinguishing individual calls.