Lock and Load!!! Here comes TOAD!
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Inflatable Toads
This was on KPCC earlier today - Interesting information 
These females really know how to get a guy to back off.
How do you get that annoying someone off your back - literally?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying, let's ask the cane toads!
Many frogs and toads inflate themselves with air to defend against predators.
But for female cane toads, it's also the equivalent of "not tonight, I have a headache."
During mating, males climb on the females' backs and hold tight with their forelegs, a position termed "amplexus."
The warty wenches prefer large, strong partners. That got University of Sydney biologists wondering: might females blow themselves up - so to speak - to break amplexus, and get shrimpy suitors off their backs?
The scientists conducted an experiment with 16 female toads. Nine were surgically prevented from inflating. Trios of males were then introduced to either inflatable or uninflatable females.
The smallest male was allowed to mount. Larger males were unleashed, to try to unseat him.
Results? On inflated females, runts were always unseated by jocks. But on uninflated females, runts held fast. That means? Inflation helps females diss undesirable dates.
As does giving out a phone number with one digit off. 'Cause toads come in many species!
The Loh Down on Science, online, at lohdown.org. Produced by 89.3 KPCC and the California Institute of Technology, and made possible by TIAA-CREF.
These females really know how to get a guy to back off.
How do you get that annoying someone off your back - literally?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying, let's ask the cane toads!
Many frogs and toads inflate themselves with air to defend against predators.
But for female cane toads, it's also the equivalent of "not tonight, I have a headache."
During mating, males climb on the females' backs and hold tight with their forelegs, a position termed "amplexus."
The warty wenches prefer large, strong partners. That got University of Sydney biologists wondering: might females blow themselves up - so to speak - to break amplexus, and get shrimpy suitors off their backs?
The scientists conducted an experiment with 16 female toads. Nine were surgically prevented from inflating. Trios of males were then introduced to either inflatable or uninflatable females.
The smallest male was allowed to mount. Larger males were unleashed, to try to unseat him.
Results? On inflated females, runts were always unseated by jocks. But on uninflated females, runts held fast. That means? Inflation helps females diss undesirable dates.
As does giving out a phone number with one digit off. 'Cause toads come in many species!
The Loh Down on Science, online, at lohdown.org. Produced by 89.3 KPCC and the California Institute of Technology, and made possible by TIAA-CREF.