Roughing It: A Mantellid Poison Frog Shows Greater Alkaloid Diversity in Some Disturbed Habitats

Abstract

Four five-skin alkaloid extracts of the Madagascan poison frog Mantella baroni from three disturbed collection sites were compared with four five-skin extracts from three undisturbed sites. The number of alkaloids (diversity) was significantly different in M. baroni between undisturbed and disturbed collection sites, with more alkaloids generally being found in frogs from disturbed sites. Two undisturbed sites did not differ from two disturbed sites, but the third disturbed site (coded 6) had more than twice the alkaloid diversity found in frogs from the third undisturbed site (coded 5a/5b). There was no difference in the quantity of alkaloids in M. baroni between undisturbed and disturbed collection sites. The hypothesis that an undisturbed habitat confers a benefit to poison frogs dwelling therein, in allowing for the sequestration of greater alkaloid diversity and amounts, is challenged by our results. In the course of our study, we found that collections of frogs separated by an interval of three months at an undisturbed site differed by only 4% in alkaloid composition over this period, whereas frogs collected at a disturbed site and collected approximately three months later already had a 26% difference in alkaloid composition between the two collections. This constancy of skin alkaloid composition likely reflects a constancy of dietary prey items consumed by frogs at undisturbed sites.