Animal mating strategies and breeding behaviors are some of the strangest and most impressive feats that can be seen in nature. Some animals sing songs to woo their future mate, while there are species that help their mate get undressed. Meanwhile, female European Common frogs are found to avoid male advances with their unusual tactic.
Sexual Behaviors of European Common Frogs
European common frogs (Rana temporaria) refer to the semi-aquatic amphibians throughout much of Europe. They live solitary in damp places near ponds or marshes or in long grass.
This frog species is known for being "explosive" breeders with a very short breeding season. They gather in ponds where the males outnumber females during the mating events. In most cases, six or more males compete to mount a female at once in an event known as a mating ball.
Several males can cling to a female frog, so they pose a high risk of death among mating females. Until now, experts are still clueless about how female frogs reject unwanted attention from males.
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Escaping the Unwanted Attention
In a recent study, researchers Carolin Dittrich and Mark-Oliver Rödel studied the mate avoidance behavior in European common frogs. Since males and females differ in their reproductive strategies, it can lead to sexual conflict.
In this study, the researchers collected male and female European common frogs from a pond during the breeding season. The frogs are then divided into tanks filled with water so that each tank contains two females and one male.
A total of 54 female frogs were grasped by males, of which more than 80% rolled into their backs to avoid sexual intercourse. According to scientists, this move puts the males clinging to the female's back underwater and causes them to let go of their partner.
About half of the females that males mounted used grunts and squeaks, trying to get away from sex. It was also discovered that almost one-third of the females lay motionless on their backs with stretched limbs as if they were faking death. They do this nearly two minutes after a male frog climbs onto them.
The researchers also noted that the smaller females showed the full repertoire of behaviors more often than the larger ones. In other words, older females were less likely to fake death. However, it is still unclear whether the death-faking response of the female is a conscious behavior or an involuntary stress response. Overall, it was observed that almost half of the females mounted by a male succeeded in escaping using these strategies.
A handful of other animals have been documented to use the strategy of faking death to escape unwanted males. Some include dragonflies, spiders, and the sharp-ribbed newts (Pleurodeles waltl).
As experts try to breed species back from the brink, understanding mating behaviors in animals such as these can help support future conservation efforts. The European Common frog is more common than many other frog species, but there has been a steady decrease in their populations in recent years due to drought and lack of rain.
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