Abstract
Animals are often difficult to distinguish at an individual level, and being able to identify individuals can be crucial in ecological or behavioral studies. In response to this challenge, biologists have developed a range of marking (tattoos, brands, toe-clips) and tagging (banding, collars, PIT, VIA, VIE) methods to identify individuals and cohorts. Animals with complex life cycles are notoriously hard to mark because of the distortion or loss of the tag across metamorphosis. In amphibians, few studies have attempted larval tagging and none have been conducted on a tropical species. Here, we present the first successful account of VIE tagging in early larval stages (Gosner stage 25) of the dyeing poison frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) coupled with a novel anesthetic (2-PHE) application for tadpoles that does not require buffering. Mean weight of individuals at time of tagging was 0.12 g, which is the smallest and developmentally youngest anuran larvae tagged to date. We report 81% tag detection over the first month of development, as well as the persistence of tags across metamorphosis in this species. Cumulative tag retention vs tag observation differed by approximately 15% across larval development demonstrating that “lost” tags can be found later in development. Tagging had no effect on tadpole growth rate or survival. Successful application of VIE tags on D. tinctorius tadpoles introduces a new method that can be applied to better understand early life development and dispersal in various tropical species.
Highlights
Distinguishing individuals within a population is often key in deciphering animal behavior, life-history traits, and ecological dynamics
Our experimental tadpoles were tagged in the early larval stages of development: the youngest successful tag was applied on recently hatched tadpoles who had yet to be transported by their fathers
Bainbridge et al (2015) report recently metamorphosed Visible implant elastomer (VIE) tag retention to be high (88–95%); we find that tags that lasted throughout larval development persisted across metamorphosis and into terrestrial life
Summary
Distinguishing individuals within a population is often key in deciphering animal behavior, life-history traits, and ecological dynamics. Studies across the animal kingdom have developed methods that vary both in invasiveness and success (guppies: Croft et al (2003), Gordon et al (2009); salamanders: Osbourn et al (2011); turtles: Fuller et al (2008); birds: Martin (1995); dolphins: Defran, Shultz & Weller (1990); bears: Diefenbach & Alt (1998)) to allow researchers to differentiate between individuals within groups.
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