Funding for this research was provided by:
Università di Torino (CASS-RILO-21-02)
Università degli Studi di Torino
Article History
Received: 15 February 2023
Revised: 13 June 2023
Accepted: 16 June 2023
First Online: 15 August 2023
Declarations
:
: The experiment followed ASAB (2020) guidelines for the ethical treatment of animals in behavioral research and complied with Italian national and Piedmont regional laws. Approval by ethics committee was not required. The permit to collect eggs was given by the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea (U.0031391–15.11.2019–PNM). During the experiment, 50% of water was changed twice a week, and food in excess was removed to optimize rearing conditions. Before video recording and measurement sessions, tadpoles were captured using hand nets and moved using water filled containers. To produce alarm cues, we adopted two procedures depending on the type of predators. In the dragonfly treatment, alarm cues were produced by feeding dragonfly larvae with small tadpoles (Gosner stage 26–30) twice a week. At this feeding rate, predation occurred shortly after prey introduction, so that prey suffering was minimized. In the fish treatment, alarm cues were produced by euthanizing small tadpoles and grinding their body to a paste (see “Methods” section). For each trough, we used two tadpoles for each species twice a week. At the end of the experiment, all tadpoles were returned to the ponds where eggs had been collected.
: The authors declare no competing interests.