DOI: 10.5061/dryad.x69p8czpx
title: Data for: Snake-like bird hisses induce anti-predator responses in a frog

description: Mimicry is a fascinating natural phenomenon, yet the ecological role of
 vocal mimicry receives limited attention. Some snakes emit hissing calls
 and many birds perform such acoustic mimicry in order to deter potential
 predators. Here we hypothesize that snake-like hisses may evoke
 anti-predator responses in anuran species. We conducted sound playbacks to
 test how little torrent frogs (Amolops torrentis) varied their behaviors
 in response to white noise, snake hisses, and snake-like bird hisses. We
 found that snake hiss from sympatric king cobras (Ophiophagus hannah)
 could change calling behavior of little torrent frogs, while white noise
 and snake hiss from allopatric Gaboon vipers (Bitis gabonica) showed no
 influence. Calling frogs also had no response to white noise and great tit
 (Parus major) hisses, which had low acoustic similarity with snakes, while
 they decreased calling activity when exposed to zitting cisticola
 (Cisticola juncidis) hisses which had high acoustic similarity with
 snakes. In addition, more individuals cease calling during the playback of
 zitting cisticola hisses. These results suggest that both snake and
 snake-like hiss calls may evoke anti-predator responses in frog species.
 To our knowledge, this is the first study that attempts to reveal the
 effect of snake calls and avian vocal mimicry on anurans.
description: Sound playbacks were conducted in July 2022 and June 2023 at a
 tropical forest stream, Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve
 (109°32'-43' E, 18°48'-59' N), Hainan, south China. In
 playback experiments, a speaker (Clip3, JBL, USA) was fixed on a shelf
 bracket and placed at a 1 m distance to the focal individual. All stimuli
 were played via a digital voice recorder (ICD-PX470, Sony, Japan)
 connected to the speaker. During playbacks, the sound pressure levels
 (SPLs) of different groups were about 80 dB in the 1 m distance.
description: The three audio files (S1-S3) can be opened by MP4. Data recorded
 for experiment 1 and experiment 2 can be opened by Microsoft
 Excel.
description: # Data for: Snake-like bird hisses induce anti-predator responses in a
 frog * Dataset Title: Data for the article “Snake-like bird hisses induce
 anti-predator responses in a frog” * Persistent Identifier:
 https://doi.org/doi\_10.5061/dryad.x69p8czpx * Dataset
 Contributors:Longhui Zhao, Yuanyu Qin, Yanjun Jin, Jichao Wang, Wei Liang
 * Address of contributors: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for
 Ecology of Tropical Islands, Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant
 Ecology of Hainan Province, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal
 University, Haikou 571158, China * Correspondence: Dr. Jichao Wang
 (wjc@hainnu.edu.cn) and Dr. Wei Liang (liangwei@hainnu.edu.cn) * Date of
 Issue: 2023-07-07 * Dataset citation: Zhao L, Qin Y, Jin Y, Wang J, Liang
 W. 2023. Data for the article “Snake-like bird hisses induce anti-predator
 responses in a frog”, Dryad, Dataset,
 https://datadryad.org/stash/share/eHR2qkmmSI2Z5FVI0rICZbX9OE7fDE15mQeMGhbnS0M. * Contextualized in experimental procedures and results: Four types of sound stimuli were used in the first playback experiment. The first type was white noise (as a control) which was generated using Adobe Audition 3.0 software (Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, U.S.A.). The second type was a song of zitting cisticola. The third and fourth types were hisses from Gaboon vipers (Bitis gabonica) and king cobras (Ophiophagus Hannah), respectively. Three types of sound stimuli were used in the second playback experiment. The first type was also white noise which was the same as the first experiment. The second and third types were snake-like hissing calls from great tits and zitting cisticolas, respectively. All hissing calls were obtained from a previous study (Barlow et al., 2023; doi: 10.1080/03949370.2023.2213206). We conducted sound playbacks to test how little torrent frogs (Amolops torrentis) varied their behaviors in response to white noise, snake hisses, and snake-like bird hisses. We found that snake hiss from sympatric king cobras (Ophiophagus hannah) could change calling behavior of little torrent frogs, while white noise and snake hiss from allopatric Gaboon vipers (Bitis gabonica) showed no influence. Calling frogs also had no response to white noise and great tit (Parus major) hisses which had low acoustic similarity with snakes, while they decreased calling activity when exposed to zitting cisticola (Cisticola juncidis) hisses which had high acoustic similarity with snakes. In addition, more individuals cease calling during the playback of zitting cisticola hisses. These results suggest that both snake and snake-like hiss calls may evoke anti-predator responses in frog species. ## Description of the data and file structure This dataset includes three recorded audio hissing calls and two Excel files for experimental data recording. * File count: 5 files * Total file size: 553 KB * File formats: three are .MAV and two are Microsoft Excel. 1. Audio\_S1\_hissing\_call\_zitting\_cisticola 2. Audio S2\_hissing call\_king cobra 3. Audio S3\_hissing call\_Gaboon viper 4. Audio S4\_hissing call\_great tit 5. data\_exp.\_1 6. data\_exp.\_2 ## Describe of the column header 4. data\_exp.\_1： subject: Number of male individuals; period: Different recording categories; white noise: Control group stimulus; Gaboon viper hiss: Hissing call of an allopatric snake; king cobra hiss: Hissing call of a sympatric snake; zitting cisticola song: Territory song of zitting cisticola. 5. data\_exp.\_2: subject: Number of male individuals; period: Different recording categories; white noise: Control group stimulus; great tit hiss: Hissing call of great tit showing low similarity with snake hiss; zitting cisticola hiss: Hissing call of zitting cisticola showing high similarity with snake hiss. ## Sharing/Access information * The dataset file can be firstly loaded using Win RAR software to load package. * The three recorded audio hissing calls can be opened by MP4 player or any media player. The two Excel files can be opened using Excel software. Additional Dataset Metadata === Acknowledgements --- This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 32101240 to LZ, and 31970427 and 32270526 to WL), Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (no. 2019RC175 to JW), and the specific research fund of the Innovation Platform for Academicians of Hainan Province. Dates and Locations --- * Dates of data collection: Sound playbacks were conducted in July 2022 and June 2023. * Geographic locations of data collection: Data were collected at a tropical forest stream, Wuzhishan National Nature Reserve (109°32'-43' E, 18°48'-59' N), Hainan, south China. Methodological Information === * Methods of data collection/generation: see manuscript for details.