Fortune may favor the flexible: Environment-dependent behavioral shifts in invasive coquí frogs

Abstract

Biological invasions are a major driver of global biodiversity loss, impacting endemic species, ecosystems, and economies. As invasive species introductions continue to rise, addressing their impact has become a priority for conservation management. While the influence of life history traits on invasive success is well-established, the role of behavior remains an evolving area of research. The coquí frog,Eleutherodactylus coqui, an invasive species in Hawai’i, serves as an ideal model for studying the role of behavior, complementing previous research on its physiology, morphology, and the environmental factors that drive its invasive success. We examined behavior in the field across ecological gradients of population density and elevation. We observed that variations in exploratory behavior and activity were influenced by an interaction between density and elevation. Additionally, we evaluated behavior following prolonged acclimation to a novel lab environment. We found widespread plasticity in boldness, exploration, and activity, with all behaviors decreasing in the lab. In contrast, we observed consistent correlations between exploratory behavior and activity, both in the field and lab. The persistence of these correlations across environmental contexts highlights the potential for predicting behavioral responses of invasive species in novel environments. Lastly, we investigated the relationship between resting metabolic rate and behavior in the lab. We found positive correlations between resting metabolic rate and behavior, expanding our understanding of the interactions between physiology, behavior, and ecological influences. Taken together, our results suggest that behavior may be predicted based on a combination of environmental and physiological responses.