Search for: All records

Abstract. Marking juveniles of terrestrial direct-developing frogs is challenging because of their small size (< 18 mm) and fragility. This difficulty has limited studies on demography or population dynamics where empirical data on the survivorship of juveniles or their recruitment to adulthood are missing. In a controlled laboratory experiment, we tested the survivorship of wild-caught juvenile Eleutherodactylus coqui Thomas, 1966 to marking with a single colour visual internal elastomer (VIE) in the thigh, with and without additional ventral skin-swabbing for disease or microbiome monitoring. Results revealed 100% survival in all groups, and all juveniles remained unharmed, moved freely, and fed actively during three days after treatment, suggesting that this type of manipulation does not cause direct mortality. After 17 months of the experiment, we have recaptured 11% of the marked juveniles as adults, indicating that they can survive to recruitment age. We propose the use of a single VIE colour as a method to mark and follow date-specific cohorts of juvenile direct-developing frogs or young metamorphs until they reach older and larger age classes. This marking method can be used safely together with skin swabbing and provide valuable information for studies on population biology and age-specific response to environmental or disease stressors.