Evaluating the role of body size and habitat type in movement behavior in human-dominated systems: A frog’s eye view

Animal movement is a key process that connects and maintains populations on the landscape, yet for most species we do not understand how intrinsic and extrinsic factors interact to influence individual movement behavior. 
Land-use/land-cover changes highlight that connectivity among populations will depend upon an individual’s ability to traverse habitats, which may vary as a result of habitat permeability, individual condition, or a combination of these factors.
We examined the effects of intrinsic (body size) and extrinsic (habitat type) factors on desiccation tolerance, movement, and orientation in three anuran species (American toads, Anaxyrus americanus; northern leopard frogs, Lithobates pipiens; and Blanchard’s cricket frogs, Acris blanchardi) using laboratory and field studies to connect the effects of susceptibility to desiccation, size, and movement behavior in single habitat types and at habitat edges.
Smaller anurans were more vulnerable to desiccation, particularly for spec...