TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lötters, Stefan
A1  - Mebs, Dietrich
A1  - Köhler, Gunther
A1  - Vargas, Joseph
A1  - La Marca, Enrique
T1  - The voice from the hereafter: vocalisations in three species of Atelopus from the Venezuelan Andes, likely to be extinct
T2  - Herpetozoa
N2  - Atelopus is a species-rich group of Neotropical bufonids. Present knowledge on bioacoustics in this genus is relatively poor, as vocalisations have been described in only about one fifth of the ca. 100 species known. All studied members of the genus produce vocalisations although, with a few exceptions, most species lack a middle ear. Nonetheless, hearing has been demonstrated even in earless Atelopus making bioacoustics in these toads an inspiring research field. So far, three structural call types have been identified in the genus. As sympatry is uncommon in Atelopus, calls of the same type often vary little between species. Based on recordings from the 1980s, we describe vocalisations of three Venezuelan species (A. carbonerensis, A. mucubajiensis, A. tamaense) from the Cordillera de Mérida, commonly known as the Andes of Venezuela and the Tamá Massif, a Venezuelan spur of the Colombian Cordillera Oriental. Vocalisations correspond, in part, to the previously identified call types in Atelopus. Evaluation of the vocalisations of the three species presented in this study leads us to recognise a fourth structural call type for the genus. With this new addition, the Atelopus acoustic repertoire now includes (1) pulsed calls, (2) pure tone calls, (3) pulsed short calls and (4) pure tone short calls. The call descriptions provided here are valuable contributions to the bioacoustics of these Venezuelan Atelopus species, since all of them have experienced dramatic population declines that limit possibilities of further studies.
KW  - Anura
KW  - Bufonidae
KW  - Atelopus carbonerensis
KW  - Atelopus mucubajiensis
KW  - Atelopus tamaense
KW  - bioacoustics
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/56557
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-565573
SN  - 2682-955X
SN  - 1013-4425
VL  - 32
SP  - 267
EP  - 275
PB  - Österreichische Gesellschaft für Herpetologie
CY  - Wien
ER  -