Predator perception of aposematic and cryptic color morphs in two Oophaga species.

ABSTRACT: Animals that are toxic often advertise their unprofitability to potential predators through bright aposematic colors while cryptic ones blend in with their natural background to avoid predators. In the poison dart frogs, Oophaga pumilio and O. granulifera, some populations in Costa Rica and Panama display cryptic green and aposematic red color morphs. We herein used reflectance spectra from the dorsum of red and green morphs of these frogs to estimate their perception by the visual systems of three potential predators (birds, lizards, and crabs) against three natural backgrounds (leaves, trunks and leaf litter). Statistical analyses revealed no strong differences in color contrast against backgrounds between the two frog species. However, strong effects of frog morph, predato

SUBMITTER: Mantzana-Oikonomaki V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11442059 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature