Full Description

"Breeding Lusitanian toadfish males (Halobatrachus didactylus) use sounds (boatwhistles) to defend nests from intruders. Results from a previous study suggest that boatwhistles function as a ‘keep-out signal’ during territorial defence."

"In the reproductive season (May to July in Portugal) males occupy rock crevices or excavate under rocks in shallow water and attract females with long tonal sounds (_800 ms) named boatwhistles (dos Santos et al., 2000; Modesto and Canário, 2003; Amorim et al., 2006)."

"Also, in contrast to approaches, the production of boatwhistles could proceed to a fight if the intrusion persisted. On many occasions there was no apparent reaction from the resident (‘no reaction’)."

"Intruders usually fled when they heard a boatwhistle either while approaching (85%, N=33) or intruding a nest (76%, N=25)."

"Lusitanian toadfish has the advantage that a great component of agonistic interactions relies on acoustic signalling performed with no accompanying visual displays (Vasconcelos et al., 2010), thus avoiding the confounding effects of the interplay of different sensory channels."

Observation Environment Quotes

"We maintained experimental males in round stock tanks (plastic swimming pools 2 m in diameter and water depth of 0.5 m) near the intertidal toadfish nesting area where males were collected."

Behaviour Description Quotes

"Breeding Lusitanian toadfish males (Halobatrachus didactylus) use sounds (boatwhistles) to defend nests from intruders. Results from a previous study suggest that boatwhistles function as a ‘keep-out signal’ during territorial defence."

"In the reproductive season (May to July in Portugal) males occupy rock crevices or excavate under rocks in shallow water and attract females with long tonal sounds (_800 ms) named boatwhistles (dos Santos et al., 2000; Modesto and Canário, 2003; Amorim et al., 2006)."

"Lusitanian toadfish has the advantage that a great component of agonistic interactions relies on acoustic signalling performed with no accompanying visual displays (Vasconcelos et al., 2010), thus avoiding the confounding effects of the interplay of different sensory channels."

Sound Name Quotes

"Breeding Lusitanian toadfish males (Halobatrachus didactylus) use sounds (boatwhistles) to defend nests from intruders. Results from a previous study suggest that boatwhistles function as a ‘keep-out signal’ during territorial defence."

"In the reproductive season (May to July in Portugal) males occupy rock crevices or excavate under rocks in shallow water and attract females with long tonal sounds (_800 ms) named boatwhistles (dos Santos et al., 2000; Modesto and Canário, 2003; Amorim et al., 2006)."