Why link diverse citizen science surveys? Widespread arboreal habits of a terrestrial amphibian revealed by mammalian tree surveys in Britain.

ABSTRACT: Terrestrial anurans, with their typically short limbs, heavy-set bodies and absent claws or toe pads are incongruous tree climbers, but even occasional arboreal locomotion could offer substantial advantages for evading predators or accessing new shelter or food resources. Despite recent interest, arboreal behaviour remains rarely and unsystematically described for terrestrial amphibians in Europe, likely due to fundamental differences in survey methods and therefore a lack of field data. However, other taxa surveys specifically target trees and tree cavities. We undertook collaborations and large-scale data searches with two major citizen science projects surveying for arboreal mammals in Britain to investigate potential tree climbing by amphibians at a national scale. Remarkably, we found

SUBMITTER: Petrovan SO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9258833 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature