Responses to synthetic advertisement calls by lake frogs from western Anatolia

Abstract

Bioacoustic and morphological measurements suggest that the lake frog, Rana ridibunda, may represent different species or subspecies over its wide geographic range. Vocal responses from male lake frogs from western Turkey were analyzed in response to laboratory playbacks of synthetic advertisement calls of lake frogs from Turkey, Israel, and Greece. Lake frogs in Israel (Rana bedriagae) and Greece (R. balcanica) are thought to represent different species. Stimuli varied in the number of pulse groups in each call. Males responded most vigorously to playbacks of the R. bedriagae call. In contrast, males rarely responded to the calls of R. balcanica, and never responded to the calls of Hyla cinerea. Males preferred stimuli with more rather than fewer pulse groups. These observations may be used in the classification of Turkish R. ridibunda populations.