Oct 13, 2023
NOT TONIGHT -- Female Frogs Play Dead To Avoid Horny Males
Female European common frogs engage "tonic immobility" to avoid mating.
- 8 minutes
Scientists have discovered that
female European common frogs would
fake their own death to avoid getting
unwanted attention from frisky male frogs.
Heroes.
Yes, a female did produce this story.
[00:00:16]
[LAUGH] Female European common frogs were
observed engaged in tonic immobility,
essentially feigning their
own death to avoid mating,
according to a study published Wednesday
in Royal Society Open Science.
[00:00:32]
Why are they trying to
avoid these pesky males,
you might be asking yourselves, if you're
interested in the sex lives of frogs.
I definitely am.
The phenomenon seems to evolve in order
for females to survive an intense and
potentially dangerous mating season,
according to Carolyn Dittrich,
[00:00:49]
an evolutionary and behavioral
ecologist who conducted the research.
European common frogs engage in
an explosive breeding season,
a short season in which males fiercely
compete for access to females,
which results in scrambling and fighting.
[00:01:06]
Males also may harass, coerce or
intimidate females into mating,
according to the study.
Amid the chaos, female frogs are at
risk of getting trapped in mating balls,
in which several males
cling to them to vie for
their attention,
which could lead to their death.
[00:01:24]
I mean,
I did not know frogs did gang bangs.
That is wild.
The mating-
>> Apparently.
>> Speaker 1: Apparently so.
The mating looks something like this,
and this video, too, may be disturbing.
>> Speaker 2: The poor females,
you got to feel sorry for
them because all these males have only
one thing on their mind right now.
[00:01:46]
She's on the edge of the pond and
she's thinking, will I?
Won't I?
And when she makes that final jump in,
all hell breaks loose.
And these little males,
what they're trying to do is
they're trying to grab the female.
They have special pads
on their little hands.
[00:02:03]
And what they're trying to do
is get into the right position.
They will wrestle each other.
And she is stuck in the middle.
>> Speaker 1: Wow.
>> Speaker 3: Luckily they're not
intelligent enough to be offended.
[00:02:21]
>> Yeah but you could still see
fully the male horny faces and
the female skeptical not into it face.
They were all the guys in the river
were like come on, come on.
And the girl was like, mm, I don't know.
Wow.
>> Speaker 1: Rather than being passive
and helpless, we find that females can use
[00:02:37]
three key strategies for avoiding males
they didn't want to mate with, either
because they aren't ready to breed or
do not want to mate with a certain male.
Been there.
Among the avoidance behaviors the females
exhibited included a turning motion in
which they turn and twist their bodies to
get out of the grip of males, a technique
[00:02:54]
used more successfully by smaller females,
as well as engaging in a call that
is similar in the frequency and
structure to the calls that males make.
However, the most astonishing behavior
females exhibited to avoid male attention
was tonic immobility or
feigning their own death, Dittrich said.
[00:03:10]
The researchers observed female European
common frogs stretching their arms and
legs straight from the body in a way that
could appear similar to rigor mortis.
To be fair, the researchers say that
although it appears as if the female is
playing dead, they can't prove
it's a conscious behavior.
[00:03:26]
Rather, it could just be
an automatic response to stress.
But either way, their avoidance
strategies worked pretty well.
Overall, 46% of females who were
mounted by a male successfully escaped.
[00:03:42]
What a story.
>> Speaker 4: I like the scientists
who have to count that up.
Did she escape?
Did that one escape?
All right, we're up to 46% that.
>> Speaker 1: Frog might have already,
I don't know.
>> Speaker 3: And how many experiments
did they have to do to really get to
a reliable number,
you know what I'm saying?
[00:03:59]
>> Speaker 4: Yeah.
So apparently the male frogs are probably
pretty happy about those experiments.
So look, we've learned important words
like mating balls and tonic immobility.
So you're welcome, America, for
this public service announcement.
[00:04:16]
And now you know that.
And apparently some of the frogs
also feigned sleep and
headaches to get out of sex.
[LAUGH]
>> Speaker 3: How similar we all are.
We think we're so intelligent, but
really we can barely get off this rock and
we do everything that
everything else does.
[00:04:33]
>> Speaker 1: There's also been a huge
uptick recently in male frogs just opting
for AI frog girlfriends.
>> Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
>> Speaker 4: 46%.
>> Speaker 3: They need something,
they got to leave with something,
you know what I mean?
>> Speaker 4: Yeah.
Okay, so look, guys, to Jackson's point,
[00:04:51]
we are very similar to other animals.
You know why?
Because we are animals.
And I know that trips us out,
but it's true.
And so I'm going to tell you something
about the male anatomy that's going to
concern you.
>> Speaker 1: I'm concerned about that
whole first half of the sentence.
[00:05:08]
>> Speaker 4: Yeah.
So now it's going to get graphic.
>> Speaker 3: It is what it is.
>> Speaker 4: And if you, like later,
people will probably use it against me
because I'm explaining
something scientific.
But I had a guest on here now
probably about a decade ago,
and he wrote about human sex habits,
right, and
[00:05:26]
the origins and where it comes from and
our DNA, et cetera.
First of all, DNA itself, of all
the different animals is super trippy.
I mean,
remember the praying mantis, right?
So the male,
imagine if they were conscious, right?
[00:05:42]
The male is like, all right, well,
now we're going to have sex and
then afterwards she's
going to bite my head off.
But I'm good with it.
>> Speaker 1: It's worth it.
I'm good with it, worth it.
>> Speaker 4: Okay.
Now for the human anatomy,
this scientist explained to me
that the male penis is designed
as both a shovel and a vacuum.
[00:06:00]
Okay?
And there's a reason for that.
Because in the way that we're structured
and apparently this is what we
did in the old days, we would also
have these, in a sense, mating balls.
And women would have sex with so
many different men that there would be
[00:06:18]
competition within the vagina among
the different sperm that was in there.
And that is why with the foreskin,
the male genitalia is supposed
to suction out the other semen,
both with the foreskin and
[00:06:34]
the shape of the head,
which is kind of shaped like a shovel.
And the point of our penises looking
like that is so that it shovels and
sucks out the other guy's semen
before it ejects its own.
[00:06:49]
So if you think that the frogs are trippy,
wait till you get a load of us.
>> Speaker 1: Check, please.
Check.
Thank you.
[LAUGH]
>> Speaker 3: We freak it, and we realize,
you know what I'm saying?
Those desires and urges you have in you,
they natural, don't be ashamed of them.
[00:07:06]
>> Speaker 1: Yeah, but,
I mean, control them.
>> Speaker 3: Just control them.
>> Speaker 1: Holy,
what a strange it's Friday.
>> Speaker 3: What a way
to go into the weekend.
>> Speaker 1: This story
brings new meaning to,
you got to kiss a lot of toads.
>> Speaker 4: Well,
apparently, so do the toads.
[00:07:22]
>> Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding.
>> Speaker 4: But ladies out there,
if you were ever like, I had to feign
the sleep or the headache to get out
of sex, at least you're not a frog.
I mean, they're so bothered by the guys
in their species that they're like,
let's just pretend to be dead and
be done with the whole thing.
[00:07:40]
So nature is an amazing, amazing thing.
So tip of the hat to the female frogs
who got to deal with the male frogs.
>> Speaker 1: Wow.
>> Speaker 4: Yeah.
Is it horny as a toad?
Is that a saying?
>> Speaker 1: Horny as a toad is a saying.
>> Speaker 4: Now we know why, okay.
[00:07:56]
>> Speaker 1: Yeah.
>> Speaker 3: Now we know what it means.
Now we know what it actually means.
>> Speaker 1: This is true.
>> Speaker 3: I don't know what it
was supposed to mean at first, but
this is just what it means to me now.
>> Speaker 1: And also, you know
the method that frogs most commonly use
to remove their condom after sex?
They rib it.
[00:08:11]
[SOUND] Thank you so much.
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