Male calling behavior in response to playback of conspecific advertisement calls in two bufonids.

Male Bufo woodhousei reduced their rate of calling, apparently to avoid acoustic overlap with playback recordings. Male B. punctatus, however, usually initiated a call during each call broadcast during playback, resulting in extensive acoustic overlap. In B. woodhousei, mean call rate of males in a chorus was negatively correlated with chorus size. None of the current hypotheses concerning the significance of call alternation in anurans explains these results satisfactorily. -from Author