Annual and daily patterns of calling activity in male Scinax fuscomarginatus (Anura: Hylidae) from Central Brazil

By

Olimpio De Souza, Antonio
Oliveira, Seixas Rezende
Proto Dias, Gardênia
Bastos, Rogério Pereira.
Ribeiro De Morais, Alessandro

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020-12-3

Original Publication

Zoologia

Volume

37

Pages

1--6

Subjects

Acoustic survey , Anurans , automated recording , breeding period , Phenology , seasonal variability , vocalization behavior.

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Curitiba, PR, Brasil Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia [2009]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zoologia.37.e54148

 

Abstract

Bioacoustics is an effective way of recording detailed data during population surveys and monitoring. In the present study, we used an automated digital recorder (ADR) to describe the temporal variation in the calling activity of Scinax fuscomarginatus (Lutz, 1925) in central Brazil. We also evaluated the role of climatic variables (air temperature and precipitation) on calling activity by using a Generalized Additive Model (GAM). We conducted the recordings at five ponds in the Cerrado savanna of Rio Verde Municipality, in Goiás state between November 2013 and October 2014. The analysis of the 43.2 hours of acoustic recording showed that S. fuscomarginatus has a prolonged breeding pattern. The ADR provides a fine-scale description of the nocturnal calling pattern, as well as the oscillations between the rainy and dry seasons. The results of the analytical model also indicate that calling patterns were related to minimum (but not maximum) air temperatures and precipitation, which may be related to their reproductive and thermoregulatory requirements. Based on these findings, we conclude that the ADR method has potentially valuable applications for the collection of data on the natural history of anuran species, as well as supplying important insights for conservation initiatives.