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1 September 2014 Do Green Treefrogs ( Hyla cinerea) Eavesdrop on Prey Calls?
Gerlinde Höbel, Diana S. Kim, Daniel Neelon
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Abstract

Efficient foraging may be facilitated by attending to the signals produced by potential prey items. Such predatory eavesdropping is taxonomically widespread, yet there is currently a dearth of information for amphibians. Anuran amphibians, with their highly developed auditory system and robust phonotaxis toward advertisement calls when searching for mates, seem predisposed to use this hearing capability in other behavioral contexts such as foraging. We conducted playback experiments to test whether Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) eavesdrop on sexual signals of prey (House Cricket [Achaeta domesticus] song), or whether the presentation of acoustic prey stimuli in addition to a live cricket improved prey localization. We found that frogs did not use acoustic prey signals to guide their foraging movements. Frogs were not indifferent to acoustic stimuli, however, because they moved away from the sound source in some treatments.

Gerlinde Höbel, Diana S. Kim, and Daniel Neelon "Do Green Treefrogs ( Hyla cinerea) Eavesdrop on Prey Calls?," Journal of Herpetology 48(3), 389-393, (1 September 2014). https://doi.org/10.1670/13-032
Accepted: 1 December 2013; Published: 1 September 2014
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