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| European Tree Frog Creative Commons – Christian Fischer |
Good mates are often judged
as being “good” because they are more attractive because of strength as judged
by size or the noise that they produce. This has nothing to do with logical
choice or that advice that they were given at the proverbial maternal knee, but
is simply hormone driven.
The problem is not all mates are what they may seem. In the animal world, the prospective mate isn’t brought home to be introduced to disapproving parents. It’s all out there to play for. So are many of the females out there fooled by male subterfuge?
This question of ‘true’
love was asked by Brepson et al from
the U of Lyon and is in the online edition of Animal Behaviour (1). The team
decided to put the question to the diminutive European Treefrog. At one and a
half inches long it doesn’t take up much space in the lab, but it can make
quiet a decent croak when it is in the mood for love.
Male frogs, the European
Treefrog included, announce their availability to the female population by
spending the night hours croaking. Large males with a booming croak are the
focus of adoration by the females who eschew the weaker, shaky croaks of the
little fellas.
The team of course asked
“does size matter?” to a female frog. Deeper louder voices of course, but is
that the only criterion for a good mate? What about being well fed and ready to
go?
A corner of the lab was
turned into a frog only mating arena, but the nasty trick was to install a
loudspeaker which could play macho male croaks. So what’s a little frog to do?
Frog or not, what do you expect of a Latin lover? They will cheat of course if
they have to. The spirit of Casanova is not dead. They will sidle up to be
close to the big boy, but strike faster and stealthier as soon as the
opportunity arises so the love–lorn female is unaware that the big booming
voice wasn’t their young lover’s.
The finer points of gastronomy
being of great importance in that area of the world, the question popped up as
to how did being well fed affect cheating behavior, less or more? So the next
batch of frogs had their stomachs extensively pumped and half of the batch were
then stuffed full of cordon blue bottles and crickets. It had no effect on the
tendency to cheat to get laid.
Clearly the way to a frog's
heart is not through its stomach.
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347212004010
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19886131
