A Radio-tracking Study of the Behaviour of Females of the Frog Buergeria buergeri (Rhacophoridae, Amphibia) in a Breeding Stream in Japan

Breeding behaviour of females of the stream-breeder, Buergeria buergeri was studied in the Inokawa River, Chiba Prefecture, in the early summer of 1986. We attached newly devised miniature transmitters to six gravid females which appeared in the stream for spawning, and released them in or near the stream. All of the females completed mating, spawning, and returning to land within two days after their release. Each female mated with a male within a few hours after release near the release point. After mating, they moved, on the average, 26 meters downstream or upstream from the mating points to spawn under stones. Mean duration of the amplexus was 17.8 hours. After the females spawned, they returned to land on the bank near the spawning points. They remained near the bank for several days before dispersing from the mating ground.