Take the long way home: Behaviour of a neotropical frog, Allobates femoralis, in a detour task.

ABSTRACT: Detour behaviour, an individual's ability to reach its goal by taking an indirect route, has been used to test spatial cognitive abilities across a variety of taxa. Although many amphibians show a strong homing ability, there is currently little evidence of amphibian spatial cognitive flexibility. We tested whether a territorial frog, Allobates femoralis, can flexibly adjust its homing path when faced with an obstacle. We displaced male frogs from their calling sites into the centre of circular arenas and recorded their escape routes. In the first experiment we provided an arena with equally high walls. In the second experiment we doubled the height of the homeward facing wall. Finally, we provided a tube as a shortcut through the high wall. In the equal-height arena, most frogs chose to e

SUBMITTER: Munteanu AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5458138 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature