Male behaviour and correlates of mating success in a natural population of African Painted Reed frogs (Hyperolius marmoratus)

We studied the behavior and mating success of a natural population of painted reed frogs, Hyperolius marmoratus, over 28 consecutive nights at the height of the breeding season. The operational sex ratio (OSR) was strongly biased towards males on every night. Larger choruses were characterized by a greater absolute number of females than small choruses. However, no relationship was found between chorus size and the OSR. Males showed a high degree of site fidelity both within and between nights. However, high male turnover between nights resulted in distributions that were largely independent from night to night. There was a strong positive relationship between the spatial location of males and females over the 28 nights so that most matings occurred where male density was highest. Male body size did not influence mating success over the 28 nights, within nights, or within local groups of males (males within 3 m of a pair). The mating success of males within nightly choruses was not influenced by nearest neighbor distance or the density of males in the immediate vicinity of amplexing pairs (local male density). Mating success of individual males was best predicted by chorus attendance. Male size did not influence chorus attendance, site fidelity, or the number of consecutive nights that males were present at the breeding site. Males that mated on one night had a significantly higher probability of mating the following night than males that did not mate the previous night. There was no evidence of positive assortative mating