title: Brood-partitioning behaviour in unpredictable environments: hedging the bets?
abstract: Spreading reproduction across time or space can optimize fitness by minimizing the risks for offspring survival in varying and unpredictable environments. Poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) are characterized by complex spatial and reproductive behaviour, such as territoriality, prolonged courtship and parental care. The partitioning of larvae from terrestrial clutches across several water bodies is mainly known from species with carnivorous tadpoles that allocate their tadpoles in very small pools, where limited food availability is accompanied by an increased risk of cannibalism. However, little is known about the deposition behaviour of non-carnivorous species that use medium-sized to large pools. In the present study, we investigated whether the Neotropical poison frogAllobates femoralisexhibits brood-partitioning behaviour when males transport tadpoles 3 weeks after oviposition. We sampled 30 artificial water bodies for tadpoles, which we genotyped at seven highly polymorphic microsatellite loci. Based on the reconstructed pedigree, we show thatA. femoralismales distribute larvae of single and of successive clutches across several water bodies. The number of pools used was significantly associated with the number of clutches per male. Ninety-three percent of the males that were assigned to more than one clutch spread their tadpoles across several water bodies. Given the highly variable and unpredictable biotic and abiotic conditions in tropical rainforest, at the spatial scale of the study species' behaviour, we interpret this behaviour as bet-hedging to improve offspring survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Erich
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ringler
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hödl
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria ; Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ringler
keywords: Amphibians; Bet-hedging; Brood spreading; Parental care; Tadpole transport