The Breeding Biology of the Frog Rana dalmatina in Târnava Mare Valley, Romania

Tibor Hartel

Abstract


The agile frog is an endangered species. Despite this, only few studies refer on the biology of this species. In this paper quantitative information is presented concerning the beginning and duration of the spawning period, the number, the size and the distribution of the eggs from individual females based on data accumulated in six years of study in a man made environment in the Târnava-Mare Valley (Romania). The spawning season lasted from 18 to 32 days. There is a significant negative correlation between the average temperature in February and the beginning of the spawning period (r = –0.68, p < 0.05, n = 6). The total average water depth in the places where I observed deposited egg masses was 41.95 cm in 2001 (n = 22) and 28.42 cm in 2002 (n = 22). The depth in which the egg masses were deposited was 13 cm in 2001 (n = 22) and 9.85 cm in 2002 (n = 22). The average number of egg masses deposited yearly is 416 [range 233 (in 1998) – 581 (in 2000)]. The mean number of eggs per female was 996 (range 548 – 1755). The majority of egg masses contain between 600 and 1000 eggs (54.5%). The volume (V) of 22 batches varied from 240 to 710 ml (average 354 ml). The population shows no significant population decline (r2 = 0.013, p = 0.82).

Keywords


Rana dalmatina; spawning behavior; egg mass distribution; population fluctuation

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2003-10-3-169-175

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