Some dude from yahoo answers had a cool question. Now, its obvious he hasnt taken my secret quiz, but ignore that, and focus on his question, and how I answer it.
Question:
Male bullfrogs produce loud calls during the mating season to attract females.? Most females prefer males with the loudest calls. What can we reasonably conclude about this situation?
a. The louder a male’s call, the higher his fitness
b. The loudness of a male’s call is not a good predictor of his fitness.
c. The louder a male’s call, the lower his fitness
d. We cannot come to any conclusions based on the information given.
My answer:
It’s almost as simple as you presented it. Of course, the loud male call is a fitness indicator. Not only because it’s hard to produce a loud call, but also because to do that is risky, since the frog might get into a situation of conflict because of competition from other frogs.
In the animal and in the human world, fitness indicators are mostly risky things, things that can threaten our lives. The frog can attract much negative attention with his loud call, whether it be other males attacking because of jealousy, or other animals hearing their pray and wanting to eat it.
But really dude there's no reason you should be confused about any of this. If you haven't taken the quiz to see how you stack up with women yet... Click here and see what your results are on the personal dating quiz.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
a.
If a male’s call didn’t indicate his fitness, there would have been no selective advantage to it becoming a means of mate selection by the female and therefore it wouldn’t have happened.
A… i got it right on the quiz!