Female concave-eared frogs draw mates with ultrasonic calls

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O. tormota lives in a noisy environment on the brushy edge of streams in the Huangshan Hot Springs in central China where waterfalls and rushing water provide a constant din. Photo courtesy of Albert Feng
O. tormota lives in a noisy environment on the brushy edge of streams in the Huangshan Hot Springs, in central China, where waterfalls and rushing water provide a constant din. Photo courtesy of Albert Feng

Most female frogs don’t call; most lack or have only rudimentary vocal cords. A typical female selects a mate from a chorus of males and then –silently – signals her beau. But the female concave-eared torrent frog, Odorrana tormota, has a more direct method of declaring her interest: She emits a high-pitched chirp that to the human ear sounds like that of a bird. This is one of several unusual frog-related findings reported this week in the journal Nature.


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