Deng Ke, He Qiao-Ling, Wang Tong-Liang, Wang Ji-Chao, Cui Jian-Guo
Mountain Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610213, China.
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China.
Anim Cogn. 2025 Jun 13;28(1):47. doi: 10.1007/s10071-025-01968-9.
Acoustic communication is widespread across various taxa, playing crucial roles in intrasexual competition, social interaction, and territorial defense. For anurans (frogs and toads), female choice and male-male competition heavily rely on acoustic signals. It has been demonstrated that males of many species alter the spectral traits of their calls to enhance competitiveness during vocal interaction. However, how male frogs adjust the spectral traits of their calls in different competitive contexts remains unclear. Using playback experiments, we investigated how male Hainan frilled treefrogs () adjust the dominant frequency of their advertisement calls in response to different call types from conspecifics. We found that males with higher dominant frequencies significantly decreased their frequency, whereas males with lower frequencies increased their frequency, with the greatest magnitude of frequency adjustment occurring during exposure to aggressive calls. Further analysis revealed that the dominant frequency during the playback of aggressive calls shifted closer to the population average compared to the (no experimental manipulation) period. This pattern was not observed during the playback of advertisement or compound calls, indicating that males selectively alter spectral traits in response to perceived competition. These findings suggest that frequency adjustments facilitate the ability of male . to maintain female attraction by suppressing their vocalizations. This study supports that male . use frequency alteration to dishonestly signal body size and has an implication for understanding how male frogs enhance competitiveness during vocal interaction by adjusting the spectral traits of their calls.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10071-025-01968-9.
声学通讯在各种生物分类群中广泛存在，在同性竞争、社交互动和领地防御中发挥着关键作用。对于无尾目动物（青蛙和蟾蜍）而言，雌性选择和雄性间竞争在很大程度上依赖声学信号。已有研究表明，许多物种的雄性会改变其叫声的频谱特征，以在发声互动中增强竞争力。然而，雄性青蛙如何在不同竞争环境中调整其叫声的频谱特征仍不清楚。通过回放实验，我们研究了海南睑虎雄蛙如何根据同种个体发出的不同叫声类型来调整其求偶叫声的主频。我们发现，主频较高的雄性显著降低了其频率，而主频较低的雄性则提高了频率，在暴露于攻击叫声期间频率调整幅度最大。进一步分析表明，与对照期（无实验操作）相比，在播放攻击叫声期间，主频更接近种群平均值。在播放求偶叫声或复合叫声期间未观察到这种模式，这表明雄性会根据感知到的竞争选择性地改变频谱特征。这些发现表明，频率调整有助于海南睑虎雄蛙通过抑制发声来维持对雌性的吸引力。本研究支持海南睑虎雄蛙利用频率变化来虚报体型大小，这对于理解雄性青蛙如何通过调整叫声的频谱特征在发声互动中增强竞争力具有启示意义。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s10071-025-01968-9获取的补充材料。
