Female Frogs Pick Mates that can Multitask

First Posted: Aug 16, 2013 04:22 PM EDT
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Women want men who can take care of them. They want financial security. And above all else (maybe not all else, but a lot) they want partners that can handle a lot of stuff at once. Well it just so turns out that it isn't any different in the frog kingdom.

A new study shows that the female frog species looks for suitors based on indicators of health or parenting potential, but also the male frog's ability to perform activities simultaneously.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota looked at a team of gray tree frogs that were discovered by females and their reflected ability to multitask.

Background information from the study notes that typical frog calls range in duration from 20-40 pulses per call and can occur between 5-15 calls per minute. Males face a trade-off between call duration and rate that can cause them to perform tasks for longer and more frequent periods.

"It's kind of like singing and dancing at the same time," said Jessica Ward, a postdoctoral researcher who is lead author for the study. Ward works in the laboratory of Mark Bee, a professor in the College of Biological Sciences' Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, via a press release.

After listening to the recordings of 1,000 calls, the researchers found that males were forced to trade off calls during and after for a longer period of time in order to produce various activities.

"It's easy to imagine that we humans might also prefer multitasking partners, such as someone who can successfully earn a good income, cook dinner, manage the finances and get the kids to soccer practice on time."

The study concludes with the following, via the release. "The study was carried out in connection with Bee's research goal, which is understanding how female frogs are able to distinguish individual mating calls from a large chorus of males. By comparison, humans, especially as we age, lose the ability to distinguish individual voices in a crowd. This phenomenon, called the "cocktail party" problem, is often the first sign of a diminishing ability to hear. Understanding how frogs hear could lead to improved hearing aids."

More information regarding the study can be found in Animal Behavior

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