Rojas Bibiana, Pašukonis Andrius
Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
PeerJ. 2019 Sep 17;7:e7648. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7648. eCollection 2019.
Descriptive studies of natural history have always been a source of knowledge on which experimental work and scientific progress rely. Poison frogs are a well-studied group of small Neotropical frogs with diverse parental behaviors, distinct calls, and bright colors that warn predators about their toxicity; and a showcase of advances in fundamental biology through natural history observations. The dyeing poison frog, , is emblematic of the Guianas region, widespread in the pet trade, and increasingly popular in research. This species shows several unusual behaviors, such as the lack of advertisement calls and the aggregation around tree-fall gaps, which remain poorly described and understood. Here, we summarize our observations from a natural population of in French Guiana collected over various field trips between 2009 and 2017; our aim is to provide groundwork for future fundamental and applied research spanning parental care, animal dispersal, disease spread, habitat use in relation to color patterns, and intra-specific communication, to name a few. We report sex differences in habitat use and the striking invasion of tree-fall gaps; describe their courtship and aggressive behaviors; document egg development and tadpole transport; and discuss how the knowledge generated by this study could set the grounds for further research on the behavior, ecology, and conservation of this species.
对自然史的描述性研究一直是实验工作和科学进步所依赖的知识来源。箭毒蛙是一类经过充分研究的小型新热带蛙，具有多样的亲代行为、独特的叫声以及鲜艳的颜色，这些颜色向捕食者警示它们的毒性；它们也是通过自然史观察在基础生物学方面取得进展的一个典范。染色箭毒蛙是圭亚那地区的标志性物种，在宠物贸易中广泛存在，并且在研究中越来越受欢迎。该物种表现出几种不寻常的行为，比如缺乏求偶鸣叫以及在树木倒伏形成的林中空地周围聚集，这些行为目前仍缺乏充分的描述和理解。在此，我们总结了2009年至2017年间在法属圭亚那对一个自然种群进行多次实地考察所得到的观察结果；我们的目的是为未来在亲代抚育、动物扩散、疾病传播、与颜色模式相关的栖息地利用以及种内通讯等方面的基础研究和应用研究奠定基础，这里仅列举了几个方面。我们报告了在栖息地利用方面的性别差异以及树木倒伏林中空地引人注目的入侵情况；描述了它们的求偶和攻击行为；记录了卵的发育和蝌蚪的转运情况；并讨论了本研究产生的知识如何能够为进一步研究该物种的行为、生态和保护奠定基础。
