Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
8038891 
Journal Article 
HOME RANGE AND MOVEMENT PATTERNS OF THE OTTON FROG: INTEGRATION OF YEAR-ROUND RADIOTELEMETRY AND MARK-RECAPTURE METHODS 
Iwai, N 
2013 
Yes 
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
ISSN: 1931-7603 
366-375 
for the effective conservation of frogs, knowledge about the movement patterns of the target species is essential. However, methods for tracking frogs, such as mark-recapture, spools of thread, and radiotelemetry all have their limitations. to compensate for the constraints of various methods, I combined radiotelemetry and mark-recapture to reveal the home range and movement patterns of an endangered species, the Otton frog (Babina subaspera). I tracked five individuals by radiotelemetry for up to 451 days. additionally, I marked 316 individuals in 2010-2012. Radiotelemetry revealed that three females moved among different areas throughout a year (base area, breeding site, and overwintering site), while a male remained at the breeding site during the active season and then migrated to an overwintering area. the minimum convex polygon of the locations was 5,300-30,000 m(2). the migration distances from the base area to the breeding site and then to the overwintering area were 150 and 80-250 m, respectively, for females, and the distance from the breeding site to the overwintering area was 200 m for a male. these migration distances agree with the results of the mark-recapture study: more than 95% of the individuals were recaptured within 200 m of the tagging location during the active season. distance between captures did not increase with time, indicating high site-fidelity in this species. the combination of the two different methods to track frogs proved successful and produced reliable information about the movements of this endangered frog, which will contribute greatly to its conservation. 
Amami Islands; amphibian; Babina subaspera; MCP; migration; site fidelity