Antipredator behavior of chytridiomycosis-infected northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) tadpoles

We investigated the effects of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Longcore, Pessier & Nichols, a pathogen implicated in global amphibian population declines, on antipredator behavior of northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens Schreber, 1782) tadpoles in response to visual and chemical cues of a fish predator, bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque, 1819). We placed infected and uninfected tadpoles in containers partitioned with a transparent divider and measured tadpole activity and distance from the center. Infected tadpoles had significantly lower activity levels across all treatments. When exposed to only visual cues, uninfected tadpoles positioned themselves farther from the center divider (and thus the predator) than infected animals. All tadpoles were at similar distances from the center when exposed to chemical cues only, likely because chemical cues alone do not provide spatial information on the location of predators. Infected tadpoles were significantly farther from the center divider than uni...

我们研究了蛙壶菌（Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Longcore, Pessier & Nichols，一种与全球两栖动物种群数量下降有关的病原体）对北美豹蛙（Rana pipiens Schreber，1782）蝌蚪在面对一种鱼类捕食者——蓝鳃太阳鱼（Lepomis macrochirus Rafinesque，1819）的视觉和化学信号时的反捕食行为的影响。我们将感染和未感染的蝌蚪放置在由透明隔板隔开的容器中，并测量蝌蚪的活动以及距中心的距离。在所有处理中，感染的蝌蚪活动水平显著较低。当仅暴露于视觉信号时，未感染的蝌蚪将自身定位在比感染的蝌蚪距离中心隔板（也就是捕食者）更远的位置。当仅暴露于化学信号时，所有蝌蚪距中心的距离相似，这可能是因为仅化学信号无法提供捕食者位置的空间信息。感染的蝌蚪距离中心隔板比未……