Comparison of three widely used marking techniques for adult anuran species Litoria verreauxii alpina

Abstract

Effective marking techniques are required for both laboratory and field studies of adult amphibians, especially when individuals cannot be identified based on color or pattern. We compared the efficacy of four marking techniques: toe clipping, visual implant elastomer (VIE) tags, and passive integrative transponder (PIT) tags injected into two locations (the body cavity and subcutaneously) in the endangered Alpine Tree Frog, Litoria verreauxii alpina. The most effective marking method was toe clipping, with 96.1% correct identifications. The second best marking method was PIT tags injected subcutaneously, where tags were retained in 73.3% of animals after six weeks, but tag retention might d..