WIKIMEDIA, ALESSANDRO CATENAZZIProviding artificial water holes similar to those created naturally by peccaries may increase amphibian populations, according to a four-year study published last month (January 29) in Behavioral Ecology.
The hairy, pig-like peccaries serve as “ecosystem engineers” by stomping and rolling through the forest, creating holes in the ground that fill with rainwater. The “wallows” they leave behind provide an ideal dry season habitat for poison frogs like the brilliant-thighed poison frog (Allobates femoralis), which deposits its tadpoles in the small ponds to provide them with an aquatic habitat where they can mature into adults.
To study the impact of these depressions on the reproductive success of the frogs, researchers from the University of Vienna installed 30 plastic bowls to collect rainwater at regular intervals in a patch of rainforest in French Guiana and monitored frog populations in their test and control plots. The frog populations expanded rapidly in both the areas with the ...
