There is an island in the New South Wales province of Australia – Kooragang Island. Green and gold coloured bell frogs are found here. Both male and female. Here scientists saw that a female frog is eating its male. Scientists were surprised to see this. They studied this whole process and Ecology and Evolution Study published in the journal.
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Just before eating the male frog, Mana had happily mated with him. The male frog was pleading to mate again. He was constantly making a very loud noise. That is, he was croaking. After a while, it seemed that the female was very annoyed by this. She caught the male from behind and ate him completely.
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Big and fat female frogs eat small males
Usually, females of this species of frogs are fat and big in size. Males are small and thin. Scientists noticed these frogs because on this Kooragang Island, very loud sounds of male frogs were coming. Population ecology researcher John Good at the University of New Castle said that he had never seen such a sight before. For the first time, he saw a female frog that ate the male with whom she mated.
The scientists came close after hearing the scream of the male
Hearing the painful scream of the male frog, John and his team members went closer and saw that the larger female frog had swallowed almost half of the male’s body. The female frog pulled the male out of a hole in the pond and held it in her mouth. Because the male was calling out from the same hole to mate again. Somehow this male came out of the female’s mouth and ran away quickly.
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As breeding time increased, so did the demand for sex
After this, John and his team searched for more frogs. They studied the environment in detail. Then it was discovered that there were three consecutive breeding seasons here. Therefore, the males were demanding more mating. But the female frogs here got irritated and started eating the male frogs who mated with them.
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Scientists named it sexual cannibalism
John called this process Sexual Cannibalism. Cannibalism is common in amphibians like frogs. But in this, adult males eat small children. Like tadpoles. But a female eats a male. This was the first time such a sight was seen. Sometimes it also happens that when many amphibians come together in a small place, cannibalism is also seen. But of tadpoles.
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A good thing was also seen for the female…
Scientists said that if a female frog chooses a male for breeding, she mates with him. After this, if she feels that the male is bothering her too much, she eats him. One advantage of this is that after breeding, she gets the necessary nutrients that her body needs. This is a natural selection process. The female frog chooses with whom to mate and whom to eat based on the male’s voice.