Mating Songs of Frogs

The calling or singing of frogs plays an important role in their reproduction-specifically, in helping individuals find and select mates. Sound has many advantages as a communication signal. When sounds are broadcast, the auditory receptors do not need to be in a particular orientation relative to the sound source in order to receive stimulation. Loud songs, particularly those made by choruses of frogs calling together, can travel long distances and thus attractdistant frogs. Sounds travel around large obstacles. These advantages are not found in the visual modality, where the receiver must be attentive and have its visual receptor orientated in the correct direction. Further, most frogs and toads breed at night, when light levels are low but sounds can be easily localized. We can conclude that auditory signals are used by frogs and toads because they can be effective over long distances at night.

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Male frogs do most of the courtship calling. Other male frogs can respond by adding their voices to form a calling chorus. Male frogs can also vocalize to each other as part of aggressive displays. Aggressive calls can be distinct from the advertisement calls used to attract females. Females can respond to male songs by moving toward the sound source or by selecting certain males as reproductive partners. In some species females also respond to males by calling: receptive pairs can even perform duets. Predators may also cue in on calling frogs as potential prey.

Frog songs contain several potentially important pieces of information about the calling male. First, sound amplitude can indicate the size of the individual that is Galling. Since many frogs exhibit indeterminate growth (i.e., they keep getting bigger as they get older), size is a good predictor of relative age. In many species, call amplitude is increased by specialized vocal sacs that can enlarge as the animal grows; thus, older frogs produce louder calls. The male`s age matters to the female because older frogs have successfully survived the environmental hazards that the offspring they sire will soon be facing. Amplitude can also convey information on how far away the calling frog is or, for choruses, how many frogs are calling together. An intensely vocalizing chorus may indicate a particularly favorable breeding site. Sound amplitude (subjectively: loudness) can be an ambiguous cue for a female, however. A very intense sound can indicate an old male at some distance or a younger male that is close. A close, small chorus could be confused with a louder chorus that is farther away.

Sound frequencies-or pitch-can also convey information about the calling male because the vocal apparatus grows larger as the frog grows older. In some frogs, the pitch of individual sounds varies with so that older and larger males give lower-pitched calls. Sound pitch is affected by temperature; small males can mimic the lower pitch of larger, older males by calling from colder locations. Finally, the length of time that an individual can afford to spend calling is a good indicator of his health. Many frogs invest considerable energy in calling, both because they do not feed and because it is a physically demanding behavior that relies on rapid muscular contractions of the vocalization apparatus. This effort can be debilitating in a male frog that is not in top physical condition. Calling in tree frogs is said to be the most energetically expensive behavior yet measured in any vertebrate.

Sound frequencies and the overall temporal pattern (rhythm and rate) of the song can also reveal the species of the calling male. The frequencies sounds and their temporal patterns are species- specific. The species of a potential mate is extremely important to the female. Females that choose to mate with members of another species risk losing the energy invest in eggs because the hybrid offspring will not survive and reproduce.

Thu complexity of a frog song can also affect how attractive it is to a female. The songs of male tungara frogs, for example, can consist simply of short high-frequency"whines" or by several lower-frequency "chucks." More females approach loudspeakers playing whines plus chucks than whines alone. The addition of chucks, however, also has the disadvantage of attracting bats that eat the frogs.