Notes on study of age and growth of the Hyrcanian frog, <i>Rana pseudodalmatina</i> Eiselt et Schmidtler, 1971 in the Talysh Mountains

Abstract

The article presents the first results of a study of age and growth of the Hyrcanian frog, Rana pseudodalmatina in the Talysh Mountains. The animals were caught in the first Decade of March 2011 in Sym village in Astara District of Azerbaijan. The age was determined by a skeletochronological analysis of clipped phalanges of the third toe of hind limb. Preparations were made and examined with well-visible thick sections of 56 males and 7 females. Males in the sample were 1 – 5 years old and females were 2 – 4 years old. The average age of males was 3.2 years and 3.7 years of females. Most of studied frogs were specimens in the age of three and four years. The most intensive growth of the Hyrcanian frog occurs before reaching sexual maturity. A male at the age of one year had a body length equal to 309.8% of the average length of the metamorphs from the same reservoir, two-year-old males were 328.8 – 341.3%, three-year-olds were 271.7 – 385.9%, four-year-olds were 347.8 – 388.6%, five-year — 369.6 – 421.2%. The relative length of a two-year-old female was 342.4%, three-year-old females — 391.3 – 432.1, four-year-olds — 383.2 – 397.8%.