TEMPORAL ENCODING OF INFORMATION IN THE ADVERTISEMENT CALL OF THE IBERIAN MIDWIFE TOAD (ALYTES CISTERNASII). THE IMPORTANCE OF RISE TIME

Abstract

In order to test the relative importance of the beginning (rise time) and end of the advertisement call in call localization and call preference with female Iberian midwife toads we performed two-speaker playback experiments with synthetic stimuli. In the first set of tests the alternative stimuli were the initial (rise time) or the final part (fall time) of a male call (abutting, or antiphonally). In the second set of tests, two alternative calls were presented differing in the dominant frequency of the initial part of the call or the final part of the call. In the first set of tests, the preferred stimulus was always the first one presented, independently of the shape of the rise time, which seemed to be unimportant for female choice. The second set of tests did not yield a conclusive answer about the relative importance of the rise time of the call but suggest that further studies of this possibility may prove fruitful.