Knowledge shortfalls on amphibian diets in Colombia: Future trends and challenges

Abstract

Amphibians are increasingly threatened, leading to growing concern about their key role in natural ecosystems globally as predators and essential consumers in food webs. Effective conservation plans are linked to up-to-date distributional and ecological information, but dietary knowledge is often underrepresented. This information is essential for understanding ecological requirements, changes in the species and populations, impacts of habitat modification, and developing conservation strategies. Here, we present the current knowledge on amphibian diets in Colombia, to determine (a) the number of species studied and their distribution across families and genera; (b) the temporal and regional patterns in number of articles on amphibian diets; and (c) the trends in topics studied associated with amphibian diets; and to offer (d) a qualitative description of amphibian diets and the methods used for stomach contents collection. We found 70 published studies on the diet of Colombian amphibians between the years 1914 and 2022, including 100 species (11.6% of Colombian species). The Andean region is the best represented, and the Amazon and Orinoco the least. The topics most frequently studied were prey items consumed and ontogeny, followed by systematics and taxonomy, and land-use change impacts. Forty-one prey items were consumed, where Coleoptera and Hymenoptera were the most common prey items. While the development of information on amphibian diets has recently increased, knowledge remains limited, with a significant information gap for many Colombian species in different regions. Conducting studies in little-explored areas of the country, especially the Amazon, Orinoco, and Pacific regions, should have high priority. Investigations should be focused on Caudata and Gymnophiona, plus the anurans of the Hemiphractidae and Pipidae families that do not have diet records in Colombia. Indeed, we evidence the necessity to perform trophic network analysis to understand better the energy flow between species and the associated spatial, temporal, or functional trait changes.