ABSTRACT
Amphibians are a rather understudied group of vertebrates, although they exhibit a really wide range of morphology, physiology, geography, ecology, life history strategy, and behavior. They are often naturally nocturnal or crepuscular, and can be difficult to observe, with much of their wild behavioral repertoire poorly known. This chapter attempts to showcase some of the, perhaps surprising, diversity of behavior shown by amphibians, as a context for focused discussion of four key species that play an important role as laboratory models. Knowledge of the natural behavior of these selected animals is generally scarce and patchy, however. Assessment of amphibian welfare is also a new field, and so application of natural behavioral knowledge to improve the captive lives of laboratory models is in its infancy. Thus, this chapter also reviews techniques for noninvasively assessing amphibian welfare and explores the scant existing evidence for positive enhancements of laboratory environments to promote natural behavior and welfare. Much work remains to be done, however, to establish even baselines for laboratory behavior, and, in time, fully realize how we might elevate welfare standards for this group.
