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Beyond sexual attraction: testing the aggressive function of advertisement calls in Neotropical frogs

Grant number: 23/10166-5
Support Opportunities:Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
Effective date (Start): March 01, 2024
Effective date (End): February 28, 2026
Field of knowledge:Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
Principal Investigator:Cinthia Aguirre Brasileiro
Grantee:Guilherme Augusto Alves
Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Among the vast vocal repertoire of frogs, the advertisement call is the most emitted and studied type of vocalization. Males emit this call, primarily, to attract females, however, this call has a secondary function in mediating intrasexual interactions. Through it, males can assess the physical traits of neighboring males, mediate aggressive interactions, protect territories and maintain distance. The advertisement call, as well as other vocalizations, is compose by several spectral (continuous values measurable on the frequency and power axis), quantitative (discrete quantities), and temporal properties (measurable values on the time axis), these properties encode the information that will be transmitted to the conspecifics. The relationships between the properties of the call and the emitter male traits are often measured through recordings made in natural environments and morphological measurements of the individuals. This approach elucidates a direction of what information is encoded in the call properties, but it does not indicate which of these properties are interpreted in each social context. In this sense, phonotaxy experiments can bring precise directions of the functions performed by each property of the call in the intraspecific relationships, since with the manipulation of the call we can control each tested property. Thus, based on the information that the advertisement call mediates intrasexual relations, we propose the present study that aims to decompose and identify which properties of this call provoke aggressive responses in males. For this, we will manipulate the spectral, quantitative, and temporal properties of the advertisement call of two Neotropical anuran species, Boana albomarginata, and Dendropsophus minutus, and we will test the responses of conspecific males through phonotaxy experiments. (AU)

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