Temporal and Spectral Analysis of the Advertisement Call of Pristimantis pardalis (Leopard Robber Frog)

Abstract

Abstract. The vocalizations of many species of frogs in the megadiverse genus Pristimantis are unknown. Among those species lacking details is Pristimantis pardalis (leopard robber frog). Our objective was to describe the advertisement call of this species based on populations from Costa Rica and Panama. We obtained digital audio recordings of 235 vocalizations from 10 frogs and analyzed them using the software packages Raven Pro and Seewave for program R. First, we evaluated the effects of reverberation on the fine-scale temporal properties of P. pardalis vocalizations. We found that reverberation artificially inflated note duration 4–13 times; consequently, we limited our selection of each call to include only the initial burst of sound energy during temporal analysis. We found P. pardalis calls consist of 1–5 short, high-energy notes producing a “tik” sound. The notes have a mean duration of 0.006 (± 0.002) seconds and a mean dominant frequency of 2.56 (± 0.13) kHz. Qualitatively, their vocalizations are very similar to those of the closely related P. altae. Note durations and dominant frequencies from the population of P. pardalis in Panama were more similar to those of P. altae than to those of the P. pardalis population from Costa Rica. Further work should be done to assess the taxonomic status of these populations. Our results will facilitate field identification and contribute to future integrative taxonomic efforts.