Territory Defense Strategy of the Wrinkled Frog, Rana rugosa

Abstract

The advertisement call of anurans functions to attract potential mates. The dominant frequency of an advertisement call is generally getting lower with increased snout-vent length (SVL) of the caller Rana rugosa has an advertisement call tilth a particularly high frequency modulation. We conducted a playback experiment to verify the function of frequency modulation, and investigated the territorial behavior of the frog. The frog has five types of territory defense strategy. Strategy choice depended on the caller`s SVL. Small males became satellites or lowered the dominant frequency of their advertisement call, whereas large males actively defended their territory with encounter calls. In response to high frequency (1107 Hz) playback, the frogs lowered their advertisement call frequency, and towered them further in response to the low frequency (1028 Hz) playback. In addition, the number of pulses in a call was increased in response to the playback. These results indicate that the frog avoids physical conflict with competitors by selecting a territory defense strategy suitable for the caller`s size, and by lowering its call frequency to disguise its SVL.