Justin Hummelgard

July 21, 2014

Title:

Calling Tactics of the Tree frog Hyla japonica during mating and non-mating seasons in
the Rice Paddies and Forests of Paju, South Korea

Background:

The Hyla japonica is a tree frog species found in areas around China, Japan, and
Korea. This species is morphologically very similar to the endangered Hyla suweonensis
and both live in Seoul, making H. japonica an important species to study. This species
usually differs from the common tree frog, Hyla arborea, by having a dark spot on the
upper lip below the eye, lack of an inguinal loop, and slightly shorter legs (Kuzmin,
2007). Understanding the characterization of the call is essential in determining the
purpose of the male H. japonica call during both mating and non-mating seasons, and can
also be used to differentiate it from its neighbor H. suweonensis. The H. japonica has
shorter note duration and interval than the H. suweonensis (Chun et al., 2012), but both
species have a similar single-note call structure (Soyeon et al., 2013).
Acoustic communication is the main mode of communication in most anuran species.
Its thought that there are two main purposes in the calling behavior of male frogs, which
include attracting females and telling other males their own position.
The advertisement (mating) calls can stimulate hormone production in females. Also,
they can help maintain spacing between other calling males based on intensity (Wells,
2007). As a response, female courtship calls of the H. japonica are sometimes given back
to the male, but are in low intensity making them hard to hear. Sometimes it can lead to a
change in behavior for the male, where they then change to courtship trills (Wells, 2007).
Aggressive calls are often just modified mating calls where the males send signals to
other males in order to let them know where they are. The aggressive/encounter call has a
higher pulse repetition rate than the mating call (Wells, 2007). Male anurans usually give
release calls when clasped by other males, either when the male being clasped is alone or
in amplexus with a female. If the calls observed are unfamiliar, there is a possibility that
the environment has an effect in the sound. This includes background noise, type and
density of vegetation, presence of standing water or not, temperature, humidity, and wind
turbulence (Wells, 2007). In order to reduce the interference, the frogs change the timing
of their calls to reduce overlap with neighbors and changes in the rate, duration, or
complexity of the calls (Aihara, 2007). Studying all of the different types of vocalization
from the species H. japonica is important because we need to be familiar with all of its
calls in order to determine why the males are also singing during the non-breeding
seasons.
Research Question:
Why are the tree frogs calling/singing in the forest?
Hypothesis:
It has been observed from the past two years that Hyla japonica are singing in the forest.
The only problem is that we dont know the reason for it. Based on the observations from
the recorders alone it can be hard to determine what type of calls the frogs are singing
because the recorders dont give a sound that is as clear as it would be if we were out in
the field listening to them in person. This being said, the singing could be one of several
types of songs, such as the ones listed in the background. The songs are definitely shorter
in interval than they are when they are singing in the rice paddies to attract females, so I
hypothesize that they arent trying to attract females, but instead have encountered
another male and are maybe being clasped by one and sending a release call out. This
release call could be coming from a male or female because it has been found that
females are able to produce a type of release call. If the females are being clasped by a
male in the forest, not in a rice paddy where mating occurs, then I would predict that they
dont want to mate and would produce a release sound.
There are also other possibilities for the reason of a frog singing. It could be that they are
signaling that this is their territory, or maybe even calling because they know when the
weather is going to change.
Methods:
Starting before my arrival in late May, the project began in April 2014. Four Sony voice
recorders have been used weekly for a single recording interval during the time around
15:00 to 10:00. Each recorder is placed in a different location: rice paddy number 18,
forest number 1, forest number 2, and behind one of our neighbors property because he
has claimed that he can hear a lot of frogs behind his house. In addition to this we have
caught some frogs and brought them to the recording studio at Ewha Womans
University where we can get close-up recordings to analyze the individual parameters.
This will allow us to see the different patterns and characteristics of the H. japonica
calling tactic, which is important because it could lead to finding song characteristics that
resemble different purposes, such as inter- and intraspecific competition and
communication. To analyze the recordings we have used a computer program called cool
edit. Its software that allows us to analyze the sounds from the recorders at a faster rate
then it would be to listen to the whole recording. Through previous findings, it is known
that Hyla japonica sing in a frequency of 2000-4000 Hertz, which allows us to use the
software and find where in the recordings there are sounds of these frequencies. We then
listen to these sounds and determine if it is a frog thats singing. If it is determined to be a
frog, then we record the time of day and note if it is just a single frog calling, or multiple.
For example, if no frogs are calling, we give a score of 0, if a single frog is calling we
mark a 1, and if multiple frogs are calling (2 or more) we mark the score of 2. These
scores are recorded in 5 minute intervals and all of the files are then saved into an excel
file for further analysis.
In an attempt to see if the sounds that we are hearing in our recorders are actually coming
from the forest and not a rice paddy near by, we made a scale of frequencies from the
frogs singing, by locating a single male frog that was singing in the rice paddy and
recorded its singing from a distance of 1m, 2m, 3m, and 4m. From this we were able to
make a scale that allows us to use the sounds from our recorders and determine if the
singing is coming from frogs in the forest, or the rice paddies that are close to the forests.
In addition to the recorders, we have used loggers to record the humidity and temperature
of the air near the rice paddies and forests in order to see if this has an effect on the frogs
singing behavior. The loggers are placed in 3 locations (2 in the forests) every week.
Results:
Results analyzed so far will be from the months of April and May. We want to measure
the time and how frequently the frogs are calling in the paddies and trees.
I want to also measure the frequency and trill rate of the frogs calling and compare it to
previous results from other studies in order to try and determine what type of call we are
listening to in order to help us find out why we are hearing these calls. For example, is it
a release call, aggressive call, advertisement call, etc. I found a previous study but I am
unable to view it as of right now. As soon as I get back to St. Thomas, or contact one of
the professors here, I will read the paper and determine my next plans from that.
Future Research:
We want to capture frogs and place them in a cage inside the forest to make the frogs feel
as if they are not in a cage, but instead are in their natural environment. This is because it
could be possible that placing the frogs in a lab cage could be altering their natural
singing and they could possibly be singing a certain type of release call. Also, we want to
see if the singing is different when the frogs are by themselves or near another male. In
order to do this we would need to catch some individual frogs and place them in a cage in
a rice paddy and in a forest to analyze their calling pattern and frequency. It is also
possible that the environment can be altering the sounds produced by the tree frogs, so
placing the frogs in different environments, such as one in an open forest and another in a
more bushy area we could see if the vegetation changes the frequency produced. These
are all possible future experiments in order to help us reach our goal of understanding
why the frogs are calling in the forest.
Literature Cited:

Aihara, I. et al. (2007). Dynamic Calling Behavior Experimentally Observed in Japanese
Tree Frogs (Hyla japonica). IEICE Trans. Fundamentals. E90: 1-13.

Chun, S. et al. (2012). Genetic Diversity of Korean Tree Frog (Hyla suweonensis and
Hyla japonica): Assessed by Mitochondrial Cytochrome b Gene and Cytochrome
Oxidase Subunit I Gene. Korean Journal of Herpetology. 4: 31-41.

Kuzmin, S. (1999). Hyla japonica. AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology
and conservation.
http://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Hyla&where-species=japonica

Soyeon, P. et al. (2013). No reproductive character displacement in male advertisement
signals of Hyla japonica in relation to the sympatric H. suweonensis. Behavioral
Ecology and Sociobiology. 67: 1345-1355.

Wells, K. D. (2007). The ecology & behavior of amphibians. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.