Abstract
Successful reproduction makes individuals evolutionarily fit but requires balancing costs. Literature suggests green frogs defend territories for breeding. Males will call in these territories to attract a mate. Unfortunately, calling may increase susceptibility to predation, requiring males to defend habitat with more protection. In contrast, females select the oviposition sites, potentially based on factors besides predation. Males defending habitat appropriate for oviposition may be more successful. We examined habitat for calling and egglaying to determine whether territoriality is associated with defending oviposition sites or protection from predators. Our results show that calling males are more closely associated with emergent vegetation, especially medium emergent vegetation, and negatively associated with open water. A comparison of the habitat at calling, non-calling, and oviposition locations suggests that there is no real difference between oviposition and calling or non-calling locations. However, calling locations had significantly more emergent vegetation (both medium as well as all combined heights) than non-calling locations. The oviposition sites had intermediate levels of emergent vegetation, suggesting that calling males may be selecting habitat more for protection than oviposition sites.