Rainbow frogs

When we go out into the field to collect frogs, we're actually collecting pairs of frogs as they're mating. We pick them out of the pond, male clinging to the female's back (this is called "amplexus"). Occasionally someone asks if we ever find a male-male pairing or a female-female pairing. The simple answer is "no", we don't. A female-female pairing is extremely unlikely because females use the males' courtship calls to locate them. Females don't do courtship calls, so they wouldn't be able to find each other to pair up. Male-male pairings can be induced by placing two males alone in a container - if another male is there, they'll pair up (don't ask me how they choose who's on top, I have no idea) - but that's an "if all else fails" sort of situation. The closest we've gotten to any sort of queer treefrogs are menage a trois of one female and two males. Presumably a male and female hooked up, and one male was just desperate enough to try to join in.

This is not to say that there are no gay frogs. There are...they just aren't our species.

On a related note, here is a hilarious article about gay animals and religion.

Positive slope

And the trend continues! DC voted today to recognize gay marriages that were performed elsewhere. W00t! As a friend said, "it's like a wave of gay rights is sweeping the nation." Let's hope it keeps sweeping, particularly in this direction.

Hey

First of all, this has been a pretty good week with much cause to celebrate. First Iowa okays gay marriage on Friday, April 3rd, and today Vermont did too. We're up to four now! (Connecticut and Massachusetts are the other two, for those of you not keeping track.) Now if Minnesota can just get up to speed, I'll really be happy.

In work related news...
1. I have permits! My State Park permit came the other week, adding five more parks to the total I can conduct research in, so I should be good for this summer. Now I have to plan my route and try to figure out when I'm leaving. It's been pretty cold out lately, especially at night, so it's hard to tell when the frogs will start coming out.
2. Despite the gray treefrogs not being out quite yet, the chorus frogs soon will be. I'm taking a grad seminar on bioacoustics this semester, and we're doing a project with them. Said project is yet undecided, but will involve recording and being in a pond. Time to dust off the chest waders and break out the head lamp!
3. Assuming I get accepted, I'm going to Denmark in August for an international PhD course on animal communication. Sweet. Must get passport.
4. This fall/winter's experiment never got finished due to the increased non-responsiveness of the frogs. I only needed one more... We'll start up again with that part in August after the breeding season ends, but I'll be able to get some data during the breeding season as well.
5. Due to #4, I have a lull in research right now. It's nice.

Today I get to learn plant quantification methods. Yay?

We interrupt your regular program...

Today, we are going to deviate slightly from the usual biology nerddom to look at two videos.

This first one is about a month old - I meant to post it earlier, but see previous post. But I like it, it's a good message, and so I'm still going to post it. Here you go (it's captioned if you go to the YouTube page and turn them on): Keith Olbermann on Prop 8




This second one is hilarious (but also a good message). And it has that Barney guy in it from "How I met your mother" (alas, no captions): Prop 8 - The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die