Calling and sociality in poison frogs

Frogs mainly interact socially through acoustic communication. Males of the prolonged breeding poison frog Allobates femoralis maintain stable territories and call throughout the entire reproductive season for up to eight months. During this time, females mate and produce a clutch every eight days. In this project, we will use cutting-edge acoustic monitoring with sound source localization and individual recognition to monitor the full calling activity of a free living, experimental island population of approximately 140 frogs. Using social network analysis, we will describe for the first time the communication network of an entire frog population. We will then conduct a removal experiment to test the robustness of the communication network against short-term absence of single males, such as they occur naturally when males transport tadpoles. Finally, we will conduct a molecular pedigree analysis of the populations offspring cohort, and map it on the characteristics of the communication network to identify the effect of calling activity and acoustic parameters on female mate choice and male reproductive success. Our project will be a first step to assess the level complexity of social structures in amphibians.