An international team of researchers has revealed the first evidence of animals advertising their homes to potential mates.
Researchers from University of California and the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated the behavior of the Emei music frog (Babina dauchina) native to southwest China.
Emei music frog (Jianguo Cui)
Their findings, published in the journal Biology Letters, show that calls of the male Emei music frog, vocalizing from male-built nests, reflect nest structure information that can be recognized by females.
The researchers found that the male frogs make different calls from inside and outside the burrows.
“Inside-nest calls consisted of notes with energy concentrated at lower frequency ranges and longer note durations when compared with outside-nest calls. Center frequencies and note durations of the inside calls positively correlate with the area of the burrow entrance and the depth of the burrow,” researchers said.
“When given a choice between outside and inside calls played back alternately, more than 70 per cent of the females chose inside calls. These results demonstrate that males of this species faithfully advertise whether or not they possess a nest to potential mates by vocal communication, which probably facilitates optimal mate selection by females.”
The study reveals a novel function of advertisement calls, which is consistent with the wide variation in both call complexity and social behavior within amphibians.
