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<p>Public information plays crucial roles in animal survival and reproduction. While eavesdropping on heterospecific alarm calls has received widespread attention, there are fewer studies focused on the effects of heterospecific mating signals on individual behavioral decisions. Here, we investigated how heterospecific advertisement calls affect the calling decisions of Hainan frilled treefrogs (<i>Kurixalus hainanus</i>) using playback experiments. After interrupting a focal male’s vocalization, we presented him with one of the five experimental treatments: white noise, <i>Zhangixalus dugritei</i> calls (an allopatric anuran species), <i>Polypedates megacephalus</i> calls (a sympatric species), <i>K. hainanus</i> calls (conspecifics), and silence. We found that males resumed calling at a significantly slower rate and produced fewer calls and notes in response to white noise than to the other three frog calls. We also found that <i>P. megacephalus</i> calls facilitated quicker call resumption than <i>Z. dugritei</i> calls, and heterospecific calls promoted more calling than white noise and silence, implying that <i>K. hainanus</i> may use heterospecific calls as indicators of safety. Compared with other acoustic stimuli, males showed significant differences in the proportions of call types and a higher level of call overlap when presented with conspecific calls, suggesting that the facilitation of calling by conspecific signals arises not only from safety cues but also from competitive interactions. In contrast, males tended to avoid overlap with non-conspecific stimuli, likely to minimize interference and maintain effective communication. Our findings provide valuable insights into the role of heterospecific mating signals in individual decision-making and highlight the importance of exploiting public information in communication networks.</p>

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Eavesdropping on heterospecific mating signals in treefrogs: exploiting them while avoiding interference

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月7日

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  • Ke Deng,
  • Yan-Mei Liu,
  • Tong-Liang Wang,
  • Ji-Chao Wang,
  • Jian-Guo Cui

摘要

Public information plays crucial roles in animal survival and reproduction. While eavesdropping on heterospecific alarm calls has received widespread attention, there are fewer studies focused on the effects of heterospecific mating signals on individual behavioral decisions. Here, we investigated how heterospecific advertisement calls affect the calling decisions of Hainan frilled treefrogs (Kurixalus hainanus) using playback experiments. After interrupting a focal male’s vocalization, we presented him with one of the five experimental treatments: white noise, Zhangixalus dugritei calls (an allopatric anuran species), Polypedates megacephalus calls (a sympatric species), K. hainanus calls (conspecifics), and silence. We found that males resumed calling at a significantly slower rate and produced fewer calls and notes in response to white noise than to the other three frog calls. We also found that P. megacephalus calls facilitated quicker call resumption than Z. dugritei calls, and heterospecific calls promoted more calling than white noise and silence, implying that K. hainanus may use heterospecific calls as indicators of safety. Compared with other acoustic stimuli, males showed significant differences in the proportions of call types and a higher level of call overlap when presented with conspecific calls, suggesting that the facilitation of calling by conspecific signals arises not only from safety cues but also from competitive interactions. In contrast, males tended to avoid overlap with non-conspecific stimuli, likely to minimize interference and maintain effective communication. Our findings provide valuable insights into the role of heterospecific mating signals in individual decision-making and highlight the importance of exploiting public information in communication networks.