Pug-nosed tree frogs use an auditory trick to evade predators and woo mates
Most male frogs want their mating call to stand out from the crowd, and they do that by calling when nobody else is. This makes sure that the females hear them loud and clear, and know where they are. That’s why it was baffling that pug-nosed tree frogs all call together. “Why would all frogs call at the same time? That made no sense,” says Ximena Bernal, a behavioral ecologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. She suspected it might have something to do with evading predators who eavesdrop on these mating calls. Now, she and her colleagues have found that pug-nosed tree frogs calling out in near-synchrony creates an auditory illusion that tricks predators while still successfully wooing females. The research is reported in the May American Naturalist. When male frogs call in the wild, their audience doesn’t consist of just females. Bats and bloodsucking midges, frogs’ natural predators, eavesdrop on the calls too (SN: 9/15/16). So sending out a single isolated...