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The authors of a fresh investigation have noticed both sexual cannibalism and cannibalism between species in frogs.(Image credit: John Gould and Chad T. Beranek)ShareShare by:
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Mating periods can be perilous for male frogs striving to make an impression on a possible mate: They can rapidly realize that they are being pulled away and consumed by a displeased female, according to what researchers have discovered.
For the initial occasion, scientists situated on Kooragang Island within New South Wales, Australia, have noticed fully grown female green and golden bell frogs (Litoria aurea) hunting down and devouring their male counterparts throughout the reproductive season. The scientists have given details regarding their results in a piece of research that came out on June 12 in the publication Ecology and Evolution.
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“You can sometimes hear it when you’re out in the field, and it’s often a frog becoming prey,” according to study primary author John Gould, who is a postdoctoral researcher concentrating on population ecology and is employed at the University of Newcastle, Australia, stated to Live Science.
Upon having trailed the screeches, Gould discovered that these sounds of distress were being produced by a male frog that had almost all of the flesh of its thigh eaten away by a bigger female. She proceeded to pull him down into a burrow located on the side of a pond.
“The male frog really made an effort to stop this from happening, and as a result, he was grabbing hold of anything nearby, such as pieces of wood situated on the ground, to attempt to prevent being dragged in,” explained Gould.
The male did eventually succeed in getting away. The observation then motivated Gould and his team to make a comparison of their field observations, which they performed at nighttime throughout three mating seasons in succession, to other research which documented instances of sexual cannibalism.
Scientists observed a female green frog (such as the one on the right) biting at the rear leg of a male belonging to that species.
Gould revealed that while cannibalism is something that has been very well documented in amphibians, the majority of cases that have been documented involve grown amphibians cannibalizing juveniles as they came out of the water, or tadpoles engaging in cannibalism with each other.
Cannibalism among amphibians usually takes place anytime a large quantity of these creatures convene in the same location, for example, whenever tadpoles hatch from their eggs, and also when there is an appreciable difference in dimensions between the predator and the one being preyed upon.
A significant number of frog types exhibit sexual dimorphism, meaning that adult females usually wind up being markedly larger compared to the males.
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“There is a very real possibility that females are capable of exploiting the males within their environment, not only for purposes connected with breeding, but as possible sources of nourishment,” Gould stated.
The group of researchers put forward the theory that this cannibalism may perform the function of a mechanism of natural selection.
Females may make distinctions between potential partners or things to prey on by making determinations based on the sound and quality of their calls throughout mating season. The belief could be that males that are larger in size and possess more resonant calls tend to make better partners for reproduction, which would then result in the smaller males of lower quality being seen as possible sources of food.
However, Gould also implied that the superior partners also may not necessarily be able to evade becoming food. In place of that, it’s possible that after the females have already laid all their eggs subsequent to breeding, they then decide to consume the male. This behavior has parallels with the actions of female praying mantises, who are known to eat the heads off their mates during or after copulation.
“It’s a dangerous situation for male frogs. They’re using all their strength to call out in the hopes of finding someone to mate with, but they also are forced to bear in mind an additional risk, and that is the possibility of being used as something to eat,” Gould elaborated.
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Scientists are still in the dark concerning what precisely has an effect on these behaviors regarding cannibalism. The observation of sexual cannibalism is infrequent because these acts take place in a brief period of time. However, according to Gould, this does not necessarily imply that such acts are uncommon.
Gould brought up the point that field sightings of amplexus, which is the term for when a male frog gets on top of a female in order to fertilize her eggs, are also somewhat rare, even with the understanding that it is a requirement for them to procreate.
The squad indicated that it is crucial to engage in more research so as to establish how frequently these cannibalistic incidents occur and what the impact is on the local numbers of green and golden bell frogs.
Jacklin KwanLive Science Contributor
Jacklin Kwan is a freelance writer who is based in the UK, and her focus is primarily on writing about subjects pertaining to science and technology. She is the possessor of a Master’s degree in the discipline of Physics that she gained after studying at the University of Manchester, and she was also granted the Multimedia Journalism Gold-Standard NCTJ certification in the year 2021. Jacklin’s work has been featured in Wired UK, Current Affairs, and Science for the People.
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