Female frogs care nothing about looks. The faster males call, the more chances for females to say ‘I do’.
Scientists have made an interesting observation in relation to the behavior of some species of frogs. Based on their new findings, female Tungara frogs settle for the next best thing when choosing partners, a practice that is in contradiction to other species’ preferences.
Scientists have studied the love calls that male frogs make and the influence that they actually have on potential female partners. For that, they placed the female frogs in an enclosed space with loudspeakers to see how they reacted to different calls.
The first series of calls were uttered at a very fast speed, one of the most attractive features in the frog-dominated world. The other features of these frog voices were not at all attractive.
After the first tests, scientists have subjected the frogs to a new experiment. They have played highly attractive frog calls at a lower speed to see which one of the two was more appealing for female frogs. Based on their observations, female Tungara frogs settle for the next best thing when it comes to choosing their partners.
Scientists introduced a third variable: they uttered a much slower frog call compared to the previous ones. They were expecting female frogs to maintain their initial choice, but much to their surprise, female frogs headed for the second variant, the one they initially labeled as unattractive.
The findings of the study have one thing in common: they all confirm that fast calls are considered highly attractive among frog females. However, they can’t explain the behavioral changes that females registered during the second tests. The only explanation they have found was that less attractive individuals have the ability to make other exemplars seem more attractive. This, or female frogs have very bad memory and they fail to remember how fast the first frog calls were.
Scientists still have to look at the factors behind this new discovery. They want to determine what is it exactly that pushes female frogs to choose the less attractive, yet much faster speaking exemplar to the detriment of the more attractive one.
Image source: www.lyttevegger.files.wordpress.com