Advertisement calls of Cuban toads of the genus Bufo (Anura, Bufonidae)

Abstract

The Bufo peltocephalus group is comprised of ten species of toads from the West Indies. Cuba hosts the highest diversity, with a total of seven endemic species. Adequated acoustic characterization of the vocalizations remained absent for the majority of these species. We offer some natural history data on their calling behavior, calling/breeding sites and describe the spectral and temporal characteristcs of the advertisement call for all seven Cuban toads, five of which have not been described. The calls of each species differ from the rest in at least two of the examined parameters, particularly dominant frequency and pulse rate. We observed the two basic patterns of amplitude modulation. The first one, emitted by the three largest toad species, is characterized by long calls with trains of complex pulses. The second pattern, typical of the small and intermediate size species, includes short calls with trains of simple pulses.