Reproductive period and geographic distribution of the toad Incilius aucoinae in Golfito, Costa Rica.
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| Autores: | , |
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| Formato: | artículo original |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de Publicación: | 2009 |
| Descripción: | The biology of neotropical amphibians is not well known. Some toad species of the Bufonidae family are common, thus allowing the study of their populations. We studied a population in río Cañaza, Golfito, Costa Rica, in a sector 360 m upstream of Barrio Ureña, divided in 36 sectors of 10 m. The study was carried out for five years, but taking samples of adults in January 1995, 1997, 1998 (except March), and 1999. We also studied tadpoles during four days in 1997. In total, 443 males and 7 females were marked, with 315 males recaptured and no females. Females are bigger (91.1 mm) than males (61.3 mm). Most recaptured individuals occurred in the same or adjacent sectors, with a maximum movement of 28 sectors. One individual was recaptured repeatedly in all the samples. This indicates that they survived at least five reproductive cycles. The reproductive cycle takes place during the dry season, between December and April. We found more individuals during the reproductive cycle of 1997 and less during 1995. Sector 6 had the most number of males and sector number 4 had the least. Sectors with semi-open vegetation had more males compared to sectors with more forest cover. February is the month with the highest abundance of males. There are intermediate values in December and January, and fewer individuals in March and April. In every month, except February, the abundance of individuals was greater where there were beaches. Tadpoles were found both during the day and night in the 31 river sectors, but it was less likely to find tadpoles in the river section during the night. During the day all tadpoles were found scattered around the river, at night they congregated near river margins. The reproductive cycle of this toad occurs during the dry season and females are present only in the reproductive season, resulting in an almost only male sex ratio (only seven females were found). Males can reproduce at least in 5 reproductive cycles, and –unexpectedly– day and night distribution of tadpoles varies |
| País: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Institución: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:portal.ucr.ac.cr:article/21356 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/21356 |
| Palabra clave: | incilius aucoinae epoca reproductiva población proporcion de sexos fidelidad de sitio bufonidae Costa Rica breeding season population sex ratio site fidelity |