The Amphibian Dating Game involves frog eating frog.
An ecologist captures the exact moment a female Japanese wood frog attempts to eat a male mate.
Dr John Gould from the University of Newcastle in Australia observed the female gripping the male’s leg with a firm bite.
During the encounter, which Gould captured on video, the male could be heard letting out high-pitched cries as he struggled to free himself from the female’s grasp and was pulled deeper into a depression at the side of the pond during mating season.
The incident occurred on Kooragang Island, north of Sydney, where Gould was investigating one of the last strongholds of the endangered frog.
Cannibalism is not uncommon among amphibians – tadpoles often feed on each other and adults often eat their young – but this is the first time that adult cannibalism of this species has been captured on video.
Gould has also documented adult female green and golden frogs preying on other frog species: he filmed a female green and golden frog preying on an adult brown frog.
“The attempted cannibalism situation, in which adult female frogs target adult male suitors, prompted Dr Gould to investigate a new theory that female frogs have the option to exploit potential male suitors for reproduction and food, and that the calls of males may determine their fate,” Newcastle University said.
Gould’s observations, “Food or Mates: Searching for Evidence of Sexual Cannibalism in Amphibians,” are published in the Journal of Ecology and Evolution.
