Abstract:
Old World treefrogs in the family Rhacophoridae have complex vocalizations. The vocal repertoire of a population of endemic males, Boophis madagascariensis, was studied in the animals' natural habitat in Ranomafana National Park in eastern Madagascar. Twenty-eight calls and variations were recorded. This represents the largest call repertoire of any frog reported to date. Playback studies demonstrated the strong tendency for males to respond in kind. Moreover, one sequence of call notes tended to stimulate calling, another inhibited calling, and a third had little effect on the calling behavior of males. Applying permutation tests to 100 calls produced by a single male revealed no predictable pattern to the call production sequence. This implies a call generation scheme for Boophis (and perhaps other Rhacophiorids) that differs fundamentally from New World frogs. [Work supported by NIH and a Guggenheim Fellowship to PMN.]