Meeting Abstract
During the breeding season male green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) congregate in leks and produce auditory signals, “calls”, for the principal purpose of attracting females. A critical component of a male call is it’s frequency; with low frequency calls being more desirable to potential mates relative to high frequency calls. Due to limited space within a tightly packed lek, males frequently participate in aggressive, dueling bouts with other males and utilize the above mentioned calls to deter their competitors. In this study we sought to examine whether males assess the call frequency of a competitor male and alter their aggressive decisions (i.e. engage, persist, or retreat) based upon their opponents call frequency. We hypothesize that low frequency calls, which are more desirable to females and indicative of a competitively superior male, would elicit reduced aggression from focal males. Over the 2015 and 2016 breeding season we collected amplexed (male-female) pairs at a local population in Maryland. Pairs were separated and the males were placed in sound proof chambers where they were exposed to playbacks of male calls of varying frequencies (high, average, and low). Latency to first call, time spent calling, number of calling bouts, and frequency of the focal male’s call were recorded. Preliminary analyses indicate that males have higher latency to first call and spend less total time calling when faced with low frequency male calls. A full analysis of our results is currently underway with the goal of revealing whether and how males assess and utilize competitor call frequencies in their aggressive decisions.
