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Poison Dart Frogs: Personality Determines Reproductive Strategies, Research Suggests
Influence of personality traits on components of reproductive success. This chart shows the marginal effect of interaction terms from the GLMs investigating (a) the link between exploration, boldness, and mating success in females, (b) the link between aggressiveness, exploration, and mating success in males, and (c) the link between aggressiveness, exploration, boldness, and number of adult offspring in males. To facilitate the visualization of the interaction effect, we split individuals in groups based on their personality scores. Yellow lines represent exploration scores lower than the population mean; green lines represent exploration scores higher than the population mean; red lines represent boldness scores lower than the population mean; and black lines represent boldness scores higher than the population mean. Areas around the lines present the 95% confidence intervals. The values for the phenotypes are BLUPs extracted from random regression models. BLUPs of aggressiveness and boldness were multiplied by −1 so that higher values represent higher levels of aggression and boldness. Reproductive success measures are relative, calculated by dividing each value by the mean population value, and show only the between-individual covariance between phenotype and reproductive success [65]. Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1551 Unlike their relatives, individuals of the poison frog Allobates femoralis are not poisonous but are captivating due to their different behavioral profiles: They successfully reproduce with different strategies depending on whether they are bold, aggressive or explorative. In addition, certain character traits are already present in this species at the tadpole stage. This is shown in two recently published studies by the University of Bern.
Poison frogs of the species Allobates femoralis are common in the rainforests in South America. Their highly poisonous relatives, such as frogs of the genus Phyllobates, were frequently used by Indigenous people of Colombia to extract toxins by rubbing the skin onto arrowheads for the purposes of hunting and fighting.
Allobates femoralis frogs are not poisonous. Like many other animal species, however, they have distinct personality traits. Both the males and females, for example, may be particularly bold, aggressive, or eager to explore. Poison frogs mate with several partners over the course of a reproductive period and their character traits have a considerable influence on the reproductive strategies employed by individual animals.
Most of the previous studies in other animal taxa have examined the effect of personality traits on a single measure of reproductive success. In two recently published studies, researchers in the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern have presented new results on the effects of different combinations of personality traits in both males and females on different components of reproductive success.
They examined the influence of personality on mating success, the number of clutches produced, as well as the numbers of offspring that survive into adulthood. The researchers were able to show that certain personality traits are already present in poison dart frogs at tadpole stage and that they also persist after the subsequent metamorphosis.
Behavioral experiments in the field and the laboratoryAmphibians, and poison dart frogs in particular, are ideal for studying the relationships between behavior and reproductive success due to the complex interactions and delineations that occur between males and females during mate choice and the rearing of their offspring.
The research group led by Eva Ringler, Professor and head of the Division of Behavioral Ecology in the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern, studied a wild population of poison 2 frogs on a river island in French Guiana. This colony has been established for more than ten years.
"The situation of this river island gives us the opportunity to work with free-living amphibians at the population level in a delimited area. On the one hand, we can investigate how individuals differ from each other in terms of their behavior. On the other, we can use genetic methods to assess individual reproductive success, and relate these measures to those of other individuals in the population," explains Eva Ringler.
The researchers also conducted behavioral experiments with frogs in the captive colony at the Hasli Ethological Research Station of the University of Bern. These studies generated the findings on the stability of the personality traits subsequent to metamorphosis.
No single behavioral type promises success in every caseThe personality traits of poison frogs were recorded in specific behavioral experiments. "To measure aggression, for example, acoustic signals were played back to trigger territorial defense behavior in the males," explains Mélissa Peignier, the first author of the study. The researchers concluded that the personality traits boldness, aggression and exploration can have advantages or disadvantages for different components of reproductive success in both males and females, depending on the context.
"There is no one behavioral type that generally promises success and prevails. It depends on the context," explains Eva Ringler.
The team was able to demonstrate, for example, that the males which could attract several females as mates were either non-aggressive and non-exploratory, or very aggressive and exploratory. "Males with low levels of aggression are probably less competitive against more aggressive conspecifics. That's why it is advantageous for them to stay protected in their own territory and wait there for female mating partners," Peignier explains.
"More aggressive males that don't go exploring and stay in their own territory may have the problem of being unable to distinguish potential mates from rivals. Attacking an approaching female in one's own territory obviously isn't conducive to mating success," says Peignier. Conversely, aggressive males with a high exploratory drive might increase their mating success by increasing their chances of settling in areas with high female density.
Character develops early and is stableMany animals demonstrate a high degree of consistency in their behavioral repertoire regardless of time or context. The stability in personality traits is especially interesting in amphibians, as they undergo major morphological and ecological changes during metamorphosis from tadpole to frog.
"From behavioral experiments conducted in the laboratory we found that personality traits such as boldness and exploration, were already present in tadpoles and were retained even after metamorphosis," explains study author Lauriane Bégué.
"The two studies demonstrate the importance of considering individual differences in ecological and evolutionary research. They also provide important insights into the mechanisms that both generates animal personality and maintains it over evolutionary time," explains Ringler. The results further suggest that personality traits may have a physiological and/or a genetic basis.
"Future studies should investigate the extent to which personality is inherited in poison frogs to better understand how genetic factors may constrain behavioral variation," concludes Eva Ringler.
The findings are published in the journals Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and Evolutionary Ecology.
More information: Mélissa Peignier et al, Personality traits differentially affect components of reproductive success in a Neotropical poison frog, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1551
Lauriane Bégué et al, Behavioural consistency across metamorphosis in a neotropical poison frog, Evolutionary Ecology (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s10682-023-10274-0
Citation: Poison dart frogs: Personality determines reproductive strategies, research suggests (2023, November 9) retrieved 29 November 2023 from https://phys.Org/news/2023-11-poison-dart-frogs-personality-reproductive.Html
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UI Professor Leads Frog Research By Leaps And Bounds
Scientists discover new findings every day from parts of the human body, the environment, global changes and more. However, the University's neuroscience program has a unique area of focus: frogs.
Eva Fischer is one of the faculty members in the Neuroscience Program in the Department of Animal Biology and aids students in the study of integrative approaches to brains, behavior and the evolution of various types of frogs.
Fischer has worked at the University since 2020, and her current research lab has two postdoctoral students, three graduate students and nine undergraduate students.
Her journey in academia began when she received her bachelor's degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 2007. She then went on to receive her doctorate from Colorado State University in 2015 as well as two postdoctoral fellows. Her first fellow came from Harvard University in 2017 and her second in 2020 from Stanford University.
Fischer's accomplishments are numerous, as she has received 14 awards and grants spanning from 2010 to 2020. Some of the most notable include the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Junior Fellow in 2020, finishing as a semi-finalist for the Sammy Kuo Prize in Neuroscience in 2019, the International Society for Neuroethology Young Investigator Award in 2018 and many more.
Throughout Fischer's professional career, she has not only attended renowned universities, received many honors and had many of her works published, but she has also conducted field research in countries like Madagascar, Ecuador, French Guiana and more.
Before picking her specialty, she worked as a biology professor in the Middle East, worked as a lab technician and was involved in research regarding animal behavior — specifically focusing on stress and addiction in rats. Fischer said although this research is important, it wasn't for her.
"Just trying stuff is awesome because I think every experience is valuable," Fischer said. "Sometimes you do something like me as a lab tech where part of what I learned was, 'This isn't the research I want to do, but that's also really important to know.'"
Even though Fischer did not feel her focus on rats or their reaction to different drugs was the right path for her, the research and lab work from the project segwayed her interest in the cognitive behaviors of animals.
"I'm more interested in the kinds of things animals do in their daily life and why and what that can teach us in correlation to why we act the way we do versus why animals like frogs act the way that they do," Fischer said. "So, I knew I wanted to do the brain and behavior thing, but in funny critters."
Fischer wanted to continue conducting research of her own but knew that she ultimately wanted to continue to educate and become a professor.
Currently, Fischer said she is not heavily focused on research of her own but is occupied by teaching at the University and leading the Fischer Lab.
The Fischer Lab is located in Morrill Hall, but the true stars of the lab are located in the ground level of the building where different types of frogs from different parts of the world are kept and observed.
The lab's overall focus is to understand the biological and cognitive mechanisms of frogs. Specifically, the current focal points of the lab revolve around the principles of social behavioral evolution, plasticity, evolution and correlated trait evolution.
Through her works in field study, research, experience with different animals, education and programs, Fischer and her students have also had numerous of their findings published.
Traveling around Morrill Hall's basement to view the many different species of frogs, students use the unique varieties of frogs to study differentiations in their cognitive thinking through different tasks.
Each student tests their own specialized hypothesis, but in some cases their research overlaps and contributes to one another's.
One of the students currently working in the Fischer Lab is Katharina Soto, who is a graduate student in the Program in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology. Soto's current research focuses on the behavior of invasive species and plasticity, as well as the monogamous bonds and gender roles of thumbnail dart frogs.
Soto is mainly focused on the communication and differentiation of calls from the male to the female frog to coordinate the distribution and care of their tadpoles — meaning the way the mother versus the father frog takes care of their offspring through divided tasks.
"The work we were recently publishing was looking at the calls associated with parental care," Soto said. "We did find that there were some unique patterns, unique rhythms and components of the egg-feeding call relative to other calls in the frog's repertoire."
For Soto's research, she traveled with Fischer to Hawaii for over a month this past summer to collect data about thumbnail dart frogs in their natural environment.
Soto's work is among many examples of students in the Fischer Lab conducting and finding major innovative research regarding the specifics of various frog species.
Fischer promoted trial and error, seeking opportunities that are engaging to the individual and taking advantage of experiences to conduct quality research.
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I Did The 3-minute Frog Pose Exercise Every Day For One Week — Here's What Happened
I hold my hands up and freely admit to using the frog pose during cool-downs and my stretching classes with a certain glee when training clients. It gets met with a groan every time, but it's a brilliant stretch and well worth the dread.
The frog pose is one of my favorite yoga poses to ease nasty symptoms of sciatica, plus it stretches the adductors that run down the inner thighs, the hips and the lower back. Suffering from hip flexor pain? Give this a go.
The frog pose is capable of developing mobility and flexibility around your hips, improving posture, helping you achieve better depth during squats and lunges and easing tightness in the area. But it's a seriously uncomfortable exercise to do for any length of time, and I know plenty of yogis who dread the call for the frog in yin yoga style classes.
Translating as Mandukasana in Sanskrit, the popular yoga pose has been made even more trend-worthy by TikTokkers, who scooped up the frog pose and sent it viral. We're talking over 70 million views under #frogpose. There are many benefits to regularly practicing the frog pose, and despite some of the bolder claims surrounding the pose (an improved libido everyone?), there are a good many rooted in truth.
Grab one of the best yoga mats and read on to find out what happened when I did a three-minute frog pose every day for one week.
How to do frog pose
Walk into any Yin yoga class, and you'll find frog poses cropping up a lot. Frog pose is uncomfortable, looks a bit strange and feels almost unbearable at times, but it's great for the health of your hips, groin and lower back. That said, it's worth checking in mentally to work out if you're in pain or whether the stretch just feels uncomfortable. If it's the former, reduce your range of motion by moving your knees or ankles slightly closer together. Here's what happened when I did it for three minutes every day for one week.
I had to take deep breathsThe frog pose picked up the nickname "the pelvic breaker" because it delivers an intense inner thigh, hip and groin stretch and acts as a deep groin opener. The stretch relies on external hip rotation on both sides of your body, and coupled with a gentle push backward, it can feel mentally and physically challenging. It's especially tough for those, like me, who sit down for long periods.
However, doing it regularly can counteract weak hip flexors and the negative impacts of sedentary lifestyles that cause back pain and tight hip flexors. Because your hips and lower back play a crucial role in posture, a hip flexor stretch could help. And some research has shown that yoga can reduce chronic lower back pain and low-level symptoms, though this isn't specific to frog pose.
Whenever I approach the frog, I take long and deep breaths and use my exhale to deepen the pose. I strongly recommend focusing on your breath and closing down your eyes to help you stay grounded in the moment.
I felt emotionalI know, weird one, right? But it's fairly normal. Yoga teachers call the hips the "seat of emotions," which refers to the hips as a storing place for stress and anxiety. Although the theory isn't backed up by a wealth of research, there's some truth to it.
The adrenal glands are responsible for the "fight-or-flight" stress response when we experience high stress levels. They sit at the top of your kidneys, and the fascia surrounding your psoas (the deep hip flexor muscles) also connect with the kidneys. The psoas can be known as the "fight-or-flight" muscle. It's believed that during stressful times, the psoas muscle contracts and tightens in response. Because the psoas is also attached to the diaphragm, breathing could be affected, so hip stretches can help release tension and reduce feelings of anxiety.
The frog pose picked up the nickname "the pelvic breaker" because it delivers an intense inner thigh, hip and groin stretch.
Many leading yoga schools discuss it, and some studies show that slower-paced Yin Yoga (a yoga style that includes long static stretches like Frog pose) can relieve stress and improve sleep due to its meditative nature and breathwork focus. That said, we're lacking any extensive research in the field.
Personally, I experience all of the feels when performing a frog pose for several minutes. I move through anger and impatience to an emotional place. It's strange, but it happens every time. Eventually, I always meet frog pose with relaxation and calm.
I felt amazingStudies and research aside, I get a deep sense of relaxation from the frog pose, and my hips and groin love me for persevering. Mentally, I find myself more relaxed, while physically, I feel more open. It's a great posture for developing a strong meditation practice, which can just mean a few minutes of breathwork if you don't enjoy it.
Although static stretches should be reserved for post-workout cool-downs, I sometimes add the frog pose into my pre-workout routine alongside a gentle rocking motion to help open my hips and boost flexibility before lifting heavy weights. Coupled with other dynamic and sport-specific stretches, it's a great way to improve the range of motion and counteract the effects of sitting throughout the day.
I also use this stretch with my dad (I train him twice a week), and I've seen marked improvements very quickly in his posture and lower body flexibility using the frog, which goes to show what regular practice can do.
If you find the frog pose unbearable to hold (again, discern between actual pain and feeling uncomfortable), I recommend this 5-minute breathing exercise to take your mind off the stretch.
Bottom lineFrog pose can help those with tight hips or lower back pain, but if you suffer from bad knees, I recommend skipping this exercise and using a yoga for knee pain sequence instead.
If you're ever unsure, speak with a qualified medical professional or yoga teacher before trying any new yoga exercises or training programs. Most importantly, don't rush. The pose takes a while to develop and I recommend moving gradually. Start with your heels close together, then move your knees and heels further apart as you build flexibility. I know many people who prefer to roll a yoga mat underneath the knees or pop a light cushion down for extra support. Personally, I enjoy sitting on a bolster or yoga block to take some weight off.
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