# To eat or to care? Factors shaping parental or infanticidal behaviours in male poison frogs during territory takeover

## TL;DR

Male poison frogs decide between caring for or eating tadpoles based on factors like territory ownership and relatedness.

## Contribution

The study reveals that parental care and infanticide in male poison frogs are influenced by distinct factors, suggesting complex decision-making.

## Key findings

- Territory ownership and relatedness to tadpoles influence parental behaviors in male poison frogs.
- Males appear to use territorial recognition to avoid misdirected parental care through infanticide.
- Transport and cannibalism are impacted by different factors and appear to be independent processes.

## Abstract

Parental care is costly for the caregiver. Therefore, parents should be able to discriminate between their own and conspecific offspring to avoid costly misdirected care. Infanticide, the intentional killing of conspecific young by adult individuals, occurs in many animal taxa. It has been shown to have several benefits for the perpetrator, such as increasing mating opportunities, ensuring dominance, or reducing a competitor’s fitness; but infanticide may also minimise risks of misdirected parental care. Previous studies in Allobates femoralis, a poison frog with parental care, have shown that males transport all tadpoles present in their territory to water bodies, regardless of whether they have sired the clutch or not. However, when taking over a new territory, males cannibalise clutches from the previous territory holder. These findings raise the question as to which factors actually shape parental care and infanticidal behaviour in male A. femoralis after territory takeover. To answer this question, we designed a laboratory experiment, in which we tested males with different territorial status and recent mating activity. We recorded tadpole transport and cannibalism and compared the occurrence of these two behaviours across our different experimental conditions.

We found that territory ownership, relatedness to clutches, and possibly also recent mating activity influenced parental behaviours. However, we were unable to clearly disentangle the factors influencing cannibalistic behaviours. Our results also confirmed that males use territorial recognition to discriminate between their own and unrelated offspring, and that they commit infanticide likely to avoid misdirected parental care.

Transport and cannibalism appear to be impacted by several factors in different ways. We found that the territorial status and relatedness to the clutch both influence parental behaviours in male poison frogs, whereas the factors influencing infanticidal behaviours remain unclear. Therefore, transport and cannibalism appear to be two independent processes, and factors influencing one behaviour do not necessarily affect the other. Further studies should investigate associated neuroendocrine changes, to better understand the mechanisms underlying parental and infanticidal behaviour in poison frogs. Our findings suggest that the decision-making processes involved in tadpole transport and clutch cannibalism appear to be more complex than previously thought.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12983-025-00567-1.