Behavioural parental care repertoire in Frostius pernambucensis (Anura, Bufonidae)

ABSTRACT

Parental care is a behavioural repertoire exhibited by parents to their offspring to ensure their survival. In anurans, parental care may be optional, maternal, paternal, alloparental or biparental, towards eggs, larvae and/or juveniles. Frostius pernambucensis is a bufonid species exclusively endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforests of northeastern Brazil, occurring in the states of Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Bahia. This study describes the behavioural parental care repertoire displayed by F. pernambucensis at the Dois Irmãos State Park (Parque Estadual Dois Irmãos – PEDI), the species type locality, in the municipality of Recife, Pernambuco. Fieldwork was carried out between June 2015 and March 2017, in which parental care was observed for three F. pernambucensis males. In total, 45 behavioural acts were recorded (n = 526), distributed in six subcategories: agonistic behaviour (n = 228; 43.35%), vigilance (n = 92; 17.49%), offspring manipulation (n = 78; 14.82%), dislocation (n = 68; 12.93%), vocalisation (n = 51; 9.70%), and maintenance behaviours (n = 9; 1.71%). Descriptive parental care records for Brazilian amphibians are considered rare, emphasising the importance of the present study, which provides relevant information about this poorly known taxon.

KEYWORDS:

• Atlantic rainforest
• behaviour
• bufonids
• ethogram
• Northeastern Brazil

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Programa de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade - sítio Mata Atlântica and the Dois Irmãos State Park management for logistical support. Thanks are also due to Silva PS, Gadelha EB and Silva, SJ for their fieldwork help. EGD would like to thank CAPES for the master’s scholarship (25003011071P8), IJR thanks Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for a postdoctoral fellowship (#159999/2019-7). The collection license was granted by the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis - IBAMA, SISBIO No. 11218-1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [25003011071P8,88882.156872/2016-01].