Tracking Trinidad's Treefrogs

Leaf nesting frog (Phyllomedusa trinitatis) from Trinidad. Photo by Renoir Auguste

One of the fundamental aspects of assessing the ecology of an animal, is to track its movement. Often, this is difficult as animals cannot be observed continuously. One way to off set this disadvantage, is with the use of tracking devices. However, tracking methods can have both advantages and disadvantages.

The leaf nesting frog (Phyllomedusa trinitatis) is a frog found in Trinidad and Venezuela (Murphy et al. 2018). An evaluation study on tracking the movement of this species was undertaken at Simla, in the Arima Valley in Trinidad (Gourevitch and Downie 2018). Tracking devices consisted of (1) harness made of cotton with bobbins, and (2) radio-tags. Observations on the frogs were conducted in lab and in the field.

Twenty-six frogs were assessed, with 16 of these successfully tracked. Both methods presented challenges. However, the locations of where the 16 frogs (1 female and 15 males) rest during the day were revealed and gives greater insight to the habitat use of these frogs. Further, the female that was tracked appeared to move further away from the breeding pool than the males. Though both tracking methods appear to not work perfectly for Phyllomedusa trinitatis, the study emphasizes the need to test out tracking methods on different species in their respective habitats.


Citations:

Gourevitch, E.H.Z., and Downie, .J.R. 2018. An evaluation of of tree frog tracking methods using Phyllomedusa trinitatis (Anura: Phyllomedusidae). Phyllomedusa: Journal of Herpetology 17: 233-246.

Murphy, J.C., Downie, J.R., Smith, J.M., Livingstone, S.R., Mohammed, R.S., Auguste, R.J., Lehtinen, R.M., Eyre, M., Sewlal, J.N., Noriega, N., Casper, G.S., Anton, T., Thomas, R.A., Rutherford, M.G., Braswell, A.L., and Jowers, M.J. 2018. A field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of Trinidad and Tobago.  Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club. 336 pp.