If you\u2019re trying to find a date, you want to look your best, right? Snazzy outfit, slick hair, makeup on point \u2013 whatever it takes to get the best choice of partner in the Grand Annual Orgy. Sound familiar? Well, it would if you were a toad.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsian Common Toads (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) [are] an explosive breeder in which males quickly turn from brown to bright yellow for up to two days during mating,\u201d explains a recent paper aiming to answer, well, why these amphibians shun their normal coloring for neons for a short 48 hours each year.<\/p>\n
Their eventual answer? Kind of what you\u2019d expect, honestly: \u201cOur results show that dynamic yellow coloration displayed by males can be easily discriminated against brown female conspecifics from a toad’s point of view,\u201d the authors write.<\/p>\n
It may make sense intuitively, but that doesn\u2019t mean it didn\u2019t need proving \u2013 so to do so, the team took a two-pronged approach. First, they became the toad: using a computer model and spectrometer data about the animals\u2019 colorings, they developed a kind of toad-vision simulator that allowed them to see the world through the amphibians\u2019 eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe suggest that dynamic sexual dichromatism in the Asian Common Toad has evolved as a visual signal that mediates swift mate recognition in time-limited, dense breeding groups,\u201d the authors write, adding that \u201cdynamic sexual dichromatism acts as a visual signal to enable quick mate recognition in a way that likely reduces costly male\u2013male mismatches.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s lucky, really \u2013 because when toads get horny, they don\u2019t have time for little things like \u201cmaking sure whoever is under you is actually a female\u201d. In fact, they barely have time for making sure it\u2019s actually a toad<\/a>, or even any kind of living thing<\/a> at all: \u201cMales amplect [mount] everything that is brown,\u201d Doris Preininger, a researcher and herpetologist at the Vienna Zoo and co-author of the new paper, told Mongabay<\/a>. \u201cEven a beetle nut.\u201d<\/p>\n And when the team created two model toads, one brown and one bright yellow, and set them down in the vicinity of some lusty toads, the proof was evident. \u201cDuring model experiments, males had twice as much physical contact with brown models and clasped them 40 times more often than yellow models,\u201d the paper reports.<\/p>\n But interestingly, what the yellow color doesn\u2019t signify is any kind of fitness for breeding. To put it bluntly, the females don\u2019t get much choice in the whole toad mating shindig \u2013 so there\u2019s no real need for male toads to advertise how strong or healthy they are. \u201cWe compared size, weight, and body condition,\u201d the researchers told Mongabay. \u201cYellow males weren\u2019t necessarily stronger or bigger.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe color just tells you it\u2019s a male \u2013 nothing more, nothing less,\u201d they said. \u201cBut how these hormones maintain that yellow hue for a day or two is something we still don\u2019t fully understand.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, if you\u2019re a male toad, temporarily turning bright yellow is just an easy way to make sure other males don\u2019t try to mate with you.<\/p>\n Equally, if all your comrades are also sporting a neon hue, it makes them easier to avoid in your frantic urge to mate with anything even vaguely resembling a female toad \u2013 but, honestly, this seems less important than avoiding their advances on you. For females, the whole thing sounds terrible: males will \u201cfight, kick, and try to displace other males\u201d who are already mounted on a female, Vienna Zoo herpetologist and researcher Susanne St\u00fcckler told National Geographic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once they get free and lay eggs, the female toads \u2013 understandably, really \u2013 dip as quickly as possible. They leave the mating area, trying to hide in holes from the hoards of males literally chasing them on the way out. \u201cSometimes, several males try to [simultaneously mate with] the same female, forming \u2018mating balls\u2019,\u201d said St\u00fcckler, who is also corresponding author of the paper. \u201c[That] can even lead to [the] female drowning.\u201d<\/p>\n The good news for the females? At least this whole thing only lasts two days.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA day after the event you can only see the egg strings in the water,\u201d the researchers told Mongabay. \u201cAbout one week later, the tadpoles will hatch and disperse.\u201d<\/p>\n Just in time for next year\u2019s orgy.<\/p>\n