Acoustic plasticity in Boana goiana (Lutz, 1968) (Anura, Hylidae): how males respond to successive interactions with conspecific competitors

ABSTRACT

During the breeding season, hundreds of anurans agglomerate at spawning sites, where a diversity of social contexts arise. In this scenario, anurans may alter their vocal repertoire according to the immediate social context, to overcome intraspecific competition. To evaluate the acoustic response of Boana goiana to successive interactions with a conspecific competitor, the present study was based on comparing the repetition rates of advertisement and aggressive calls of B. goiana focal males exposure to repeated artificial advertisement calls in 10 playback sessions. We observed that B. goiana males altered their acoustic behaviour in response to the simulated arrival of a new competitor. Males emitted less advertisement calls and more aggressive calls with the arrival of the competitors. Temperature and body condition were not important predictors of continuity of males in the experiment or the call repetition rates in the pre-playback session. However, the body condition influenced the total delta advertisement calls (differences in the call rate emission between end and the beginning of the experiment), indicating that higher values of body conditions allow males to show smaller reductions in the emission of advertisement calls over time in the presence of a competitor.

KEYWORDS:

• Anurans
• bioacoustic
• Cerrado
• intraspecific competition
• playbacks

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Rhayane Alves, Wadson Rodrigues Rezende, and Steven Alejandro Valencia Zuleta for their input on the manuscript. We would also like to thank Silvânia National Forest for authorising access to the study area and logistic support for the collection of the data. TLA is grateful to CAPES (the Brazilian Coordination for Higher Education Personnel Training) for supporting this work with a graduate stipend under grant (number 1523550). WPR thanks to CNPq and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás – FAPEG for the Regional Scientific Development Scholarship (Process #317724/2021-5).

Disclosure statement

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

Ethical statement

The study followed the Brazilian institutional and national ethical guidelines for scientific research.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [1523550]; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás [317724/2021-5].