The odd behaviour thread!

will wrote: Am I right that the tadpoles of certain species have their growth inhibited through ingestion of certain microorganisms in the faeces of other tadpoles?

Thanks for posting the references Caleb. I guess with these things it is always a chicken and egg thing, any one of the reason could be why they do it and all could be valid reason for why they continue to do it. It would appear there is some advantage to it though rather than they do it because they can!

Hello folks


While watching frog mating balls a-rollin' an' a-tumblin' in a pond last month, something caught my eye.
Up came a pair of males, one of which was trying to mate with a fem GCN - and crushing the very life out of the poor girl.

I know this isn't THAT odd, that frogs and toads quite often get it wrong and try to mate with other species like goldfish and even people's hands (RobV), but this was the first time i'd seen this particular mismatch myself.
Anyway, i managed a couple of hasty pics before the ball disappeared under the water again:






   

Hi Richard,

No, i couldn't have reached it from where i was. Of course i felt very sorry for it and did contemplate trying to find a stick or something, but the 'species ball' quickly disappeared under the pond weed again anyway. I waited a while to see if it would resurface, but it didn't.

BTW I'm really enjoying the book and for what my opinion's worth, would echo both the comments on the dust jacket and the feedback of forum members. So much of it chimes with me too, from the first tingles of dedicated excitement and wonder through resultant familial discord to collecting tea card sets. I love the fact that it has such a broad scope of accessibility and it's honest - when a memory was hazy, you simply owned up.

Thanks Will. I guessed others here would have seen it happen but couldn't recall seeing any pics of it on the forum - at least since i've been a member. So hopefully a worthwhile share!