Tungara Frog
Male tungara frogs face an excruciating trade-off every breeding season: attract a mate or avoid becoming one.
Male tungara frogs face an excruciating trade-off every breeding season: attract a mate or avoid becoming one. They produce a low-frequency 'whine' at 900 Hz that females can hear. But males in peak condition add a 'chuck' component at 2,700 Hz that females strongly prefer - and that also attracts frog-eating bats. The chuck is honest advertising: only healthy males can afford to ring the dinner bell for predators.
This is costly signaling in its purest form. Males adjust their strategy in real-time based on predation risk - adding chucks when bat activity is low, omitting them when danger is high. They also synchronize their calling in bursts, diluting individual risk through the chaos of many signals at once. The system works because the cost is real: weak males literally cannot afford the chuck.
The business insight cuts deep: Credible signals require genuine cost. Cheap claims are ignored because they're cheap. Tungara frogs demonstrate that the most effective advertisements are those you can't fake - the ones where only the truly qualified survive making them.
Notable Traits of Tungara Frog
- whine (900 Hz) and chuck (2,700 Hz) call components
- risk-adjusted call complexity
- synchronized calling for predator dilution
- Chuck call component
- Predation risk signaling
- Sexual selection under predation
Tungara Frog Appears in 2 Chapters
Tungara frogs exemplify trade-offs in acoustic signaling, where attractive 'chuck' calls draw both mates and predatory bats, with males adjusting complexity based on risk.
How signals balance attraction and risk →Tungara frogs demonstrate costly signaling where the predation risk of producing 'chuck' calls honestly advertises male genetic quality.
Why costly signals are honest →