A tiny tree frog seems to be using city drains to amplify its serenades to attract females. In research published today in the Journal of Zoology, researchers found that the Mientien tree frog native to Taiwan congregates in roadside storm drains during the mating season.
Audio
recordings revealed that the mating songs of the frogs inside the
structures were louder and longer than those of their less-streetwise
rivals, who gathered in patches of land next to the drains.
“This
is perhaps the first study to show that an animal preferentially uses
human-made structures to potentially enhance the sounds of its vocal
communication signals,” says Mark Bee, a biologist at the University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities, in St Paul. “These males could be taking
advantage of the enhanced acoustics in drainage ditches to outdo their
competition.”
From
Nature, where there is an appropriate disclaimer in the closing sentence.
Hm... they wouldn't have to be human made. Any hard parabolic reflecting surface would work. Perhaps they evolved in a rocky environment where similar spots were available.
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