Diet of terrestrial anurans in an ephemeral and simplified habitat during the dry season in the Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract

Amphibians often use ephemeral and simplified habitats during dry seasons in tropical biomes. These simplified habitats can have less prey available, but only a few studies focus on how their use affects frogs’ diet. Here we studied the diet of three terrestrial frogs (Adenomera sp., Ameerega berohoka, and Rhinella ocellata) at a riverbank exposed only during the dry season in the Brazilian Cerrado biome. Diets overlapped more than expected by chance and were composed mainly of social insects (ants and termites). Prey volumes were not related to the size of frogs or their head measurements. Frogs at the riverbank ingested less prey categories and fewer prey items in comparison to studies conducted in more stable and complex environments. We suggest that frogs were attracted to riverbanks by the humidity and availability of reproductive sites, opportunistically ingesting prey available in the habitat. The abundance of social insects allowed the presence of frogs specialized in ants, such as the bufonid Rhinella ocellata and the dendrobatid Ameerega berohoka.

KEY WORDS:

• ephemeral environment
• trophic ecology
• seasonality
• Ameerega berohoka
• Adenomera sp.
• Rhinella ocellata
• riverbank

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Adrian Garda, Diego Santana, Mirco Solé, and two anonymous reviewers for relevant commentaries on previous versions of the manuscript. Jos Barlow improved our language use. To Gabriel Horta and Dhego Ramon for help during fieldwork. To Guarino Colli and Eddie Lenza for the opportunity to work at Noidori river, under PPBIO and SISBIOTA program. To Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade for providing research permits (28190-1).

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ETHICAL STANDARD

This study was approved by Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (Research permits: 28190-1) and is in accordance with Brazilian laws on the ethical use of animals for research purposes, as stated by Conselho Nacional de Controle de Experimentação Animal. All specimens were carefully euthanized avoiding stress, pain or suffering, posteriorly fixed using standard protocols, and housed in Coleção Herpetológica da Universidade de Brasília for further studies on genetics, evolution, reproduction, and taxonomy.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION

R.A. Brandão designed the experiment, collected data in the field, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript; J. Fenker collected data in the field and wrote the manuscript; B. Lopes analyzed data and wrote the manuscript; V. Sena analyzed data and wrote the manuscript; B.D. Vasconcelos performed data analysis and wrote the manuscript.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.