Journal article
Frogs call at a higher pitch in traffic noise
KM Parris, M Velik-Lord, JMA North
Ecology and Society | Published : 2009
Open access
Abstract
Male frogs call to attract females for mating and to defend territories from rival males. Female frogs of some species prefer lower-pitched calls, which indicate larger, more experienced males. Acoustic interference occurs when background noise reduces the active distance or the distance over which an acoustic signal can be detected. Birds are known to call at a higher pitch or frequency in urban noise, decreasing acoustic interference from low-frequency noise. Using Bayesian linear regression, we investigated the effect of traffic noise on the pitch of advertisement calls in two species of frogs, the southern brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) and the common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Rob Clemens and Angela Schneider for collecting frog recordings, and the many volunteers who helped with field work. We are grateful to VicRoads, the Mornington Peninsula Shire, the Shires of Nillumbik and Yarra Ranges, and the Cities of Banyule, Casey, Darebin, Frankston, Hume, Melton, and Moreland for data on traffic volumes. We thank Michael McCarthy for assistance with data analysis; Andrew Bennett, Henrik Brumm, Beth Dawson, Murray Littlejohn, Brian Sullivan, and Mark McDonnell for discussions; and Henrik Brumm, Fiona Fidler, Murray Littlejohn, and Michael McCarthy for comments on the manuscript. This research was approved by the Deakin University Animal Welfare Committee and supported by an ARC Discovery grant to K. M. P., the Baker Foundation, and the Applied Environmental Decision Analysis research hub. This hub is funded by the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) program, an Australian government initiative that promotes world- class, public- good research. M. V.- L. and J. M. A. N. made an equal contribution to this work.