The animal world can be brutal, there is little doubt about that. The frogs also get to tan – especially during the short mating season. Then they gather in large numbers to create offspring. It is not unusual for several males, usually six at a time, to cling to one and the same female frog. Something that you can basically understand is reasonably exhausting. But this session is not only tiring, it is actually life-threatening. And until now, researchers have basically believed that the female frog has more or less had to give up. Which is most likely not correct. However, new research shows that the small amphibian may still have a few tricks up its sleeve. Drowning death To understand this session a little better, we asked zoologist and expert Peter Bøckmann. He works at the Natural History Museum in Oslo. – Frogs spawn. There is no genital organ inserted anywhere, but the males cling around the neck of the female frog, so that the genital openings end up next to each other. It can get quite hot. Because if several males cling to the same female frog, they can simply drown her, the zoologist explains. And then there is only one thing to do: Play dead! Petter Bøckman is a zoologist at the Natural History Museum in Oslo. Photo: Kristian Elster A little play The new study shows that female frogs resort to play to escape horny conspecifics of the opposite sex. They simply pretend to be dead. – Male frogs are desperate during mating season, at least up here in the north. They only have one chance to mate, and then they try everything. They try each other, on a piece of bark, pine cones and on fish, says Bøckmann. But – no one bothers to mate with a dead female. And the female frog obviously knows how to use that. Bøckmann says that this is not a well-known tactic in the animal world. Warm embrace or the exact opposite? Photo: Karen K. Eye Without beak and claws – Most females somehow manage to “say” no. And most animals are equipped with enough teeth and claws to be able to claw their way out. But frogs have neither nor. It turns out, however, that the female frog has several tricks up her sleeve: She can manage to squirm away. And if that doesn’t help, she tries to imitate the grunting noises that the males make during the act itself. – Males are occasionally attacked by other rabid males, because if you mate with a piece of bark, you mate with anything. That’s why they have a kind of cry of their own that means “let go, I’m a male.” One frog pretends to be dead. This may be to avoid unwanted attention from the male frog. Photo: Carolin Dittrich – Enormous response The experiments in the new study were carried out in a laboratory, and the researchers therefore stress that they cannot say with certainty whether this also takes place out in nature. Nevertheless, they believe the study sheds new light on the reproductive strategies of different frog species. They also say that finding out more about these methods can help in the work to preserve these species. Many amphibian species are threatened. Carolin Dittrich is one of the authors behind the new study. In an e-mail to news, she writes that the interest in the new study has been overwhelmingly great. – There has been an enormous response. I knew there would be some interest, because the subject matter is interesting. Tonic immobility in the context of mating is rare. But I did not imagine that news media around the world would reach out to cover our study. The hope is that such studies can help protect the small, slimy crawlers. Photo: Jan-Helge Andersen
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Female frog plays dead to escape mating-seeking males – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
