“Male wood frogs hop around embracing any other wood frog they can find, certainly not influenced by modern body image propaganda. If on squeezing, they find a female fat with eggs, they are interested. If she is thin, they let her go, since it means she has already spawned. If the squeezee is another male, he lets out a loud croak, and there are no hard feelings. ….. It mates in April in the more northerly habitats, earlier in the south, and takes four years to develop into adulthood (if males who go around embracing everybody in sight can ever be considered mature adults.)”
– ‘Ice’ by Pauline Couture
There are many more serious quotes from this book (expect a discussion post at a later date when I’m finished the book), but the sun is shining and spring is finally here so I went with the humour. Besides – the frogs have been croaking madly the last few weeks!
Rocks, Waves, Beach 
That quote made me laugh…especially the part about squeezing another male…and about what is considered mature in males! :) Many years ago, we had a bull elk that we used for a breeding study when he turned 3. Hadn’t been exposed to females before this point (although capable of breeding as a yearling). He was nonchalant when he first got placed with them. But when the first female came in heat and he got to breed, he was sort of like that male frog…mounting anything thereafter that would stand still (and some that wouldn’t!). Calves included!
I’ve not heard of this book. I went online on Amazon and Goodreads to see if I could find a description and couldn’t find anything. I’ll be curious when you do a discussion post!
By: Rachel on April 25, 2009
at 8:50 am