Oviposition and father presence reduce clutch cannibalism by female poison frogs.

BACKGROUND

The consumption of conspecific young by adult individuals is a common phenomenon across various animal taxa. Possible adaptive benefits of such behaviour include the acquisition of nutrients, decreased competition for one's own offspring, and/or increased mating opportunities. Clutch cannibalism has occasionally been observed in several species of Neotropical poison frogs, but the circumstances under which this behaviour occurs has rarely been investigated experimentally. Recent experiments with the poison frog

RESULTS

Females clearly cannibalize foreign clutches. Cannibalism was most pronounced when the female had not recently produced her own clutch and the father of the foreign clutch was absent. The female's familiarity with the area had no significant influence on the likelihood of cannibalism to occur.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data indicate that both previous oviposition and the father's presence reduce cannibalistic behaviour in

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The frogs used in this experiment were part of an ex situ laboratory population of the University of Vienna’s animal care facilities. Original stock for this population was sampled and exported in compliance with all legal requirements from the responsible French authorities (DIREN: Arrete n°82 du 10.08.2012 and Arrete n°4 du 14.01.2013). The experimental procedures used for this study were approved by the ethics animal welfare committees of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna and the University of Vienna. They were strictly designed according to the current Austrian legislation and good scientific practice guidelines and followed the ASAB guidelines for treatment of animals in behavioural research and teaching.Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.