Female Treefrogs Get Overwhelmed by Too Many Noisy Male Suitors
Take it easy on the croaking, boys The post Female Treefrogs Get Overwhelmed by Too Many Noisy Male Suitors appeared first on Nautilus .
A recent study by University of Tennessee biologists revealed that female Cope’s gray treefrogs (H. chrysoscelis) struggle to choose the best male suitor when surrounded by too many noisy males. In the experiment, female frogs were exposed to recordings of mating calls with varying numbers of calls in the background, ranging from two to eight.
Females were able to accurately select the male with the longer call when only two were present, but their performance declined significantly as more males competed for attention. In fact, with eight males calling simultaneously, females only selected the fittest male 25% of the time, compared to 76% when only two males were present.
The researchers hypothesize that the issue lies not in the background noise, but in the overwhelming number of choices. In human terms, this could be akin to trying to have a conversation in a crowded bar or using a dating app with an endless list of potentials. The findings suggest that female gray treefrogs are not as adept at multi-tasking when faced with multiple mating options, just as humans might be when faced with a similar situation.
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