Environment

Frog's ears can change frequencies

by jessica.lam | July 22, 2008 at 08:30 am

459 views | 2 Recommendations | 7 comments

Whenever someone nags, be it your mother or your significant other, one cannot help but want to be deaf to their dronings.

The unusual Chinese frogs are gifted with this ability. Studies have shown that they can choose which frequency it wants to hear. Forget about spider man, I want frog powers.

Chinese frog can shift its hearing from one frequency to another in order to selectively choose what it hears, according to a paper published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The frog, Odorrana tormota, is the only known animal in the world that can manipulate its hearing system to select particular frequencies. Humans appear to possess a modicum of control, but our system is slow compared to that of the frog and we cannot, with precision, tune our ears to match sounds.

The rare amphibian likely evolved its hearing talent out of necessity, since its environment is so noisy.

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Paschen

at 15:39 on July 22nd, 2008

Frogs can do a lot more than that though, they can change their sex as well, should they be a lack of females or males they can change with in a short period! Now not all frog species can do so!

Vinny

at 15:45 on July 22nd, 2008

So can we Brits with a bit of help from the NHS!

letteapplejuice

at 00:37 on July 23rd, 2008

I would love this talent, I am a severely Deaf irish person, and with his disability I could choose what I wanted to hear properly! ;)

lette_applejuice has contributed a photo to this story.

BlueIce65

at 06:38 on July 23rd, 2008

Gray Treefrog Hyla versicolor. I found this little frog along with several others living in and around my sister's pool. She lives in the country side in central Pennsylvania. These little guys change color to blend in with their surroundings. This one was blending with the pool.

Thanks for using my images for this story!

BlueIce65 has contributed a photo to this story.

DhinMO

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:01 on July 23rd, 2008

jay.el, Great job on this story.. thanks for asking to post 2 of my frog pics!

one_lost_backpacker

at 12:24 on July 23rd, 2008

I took this picture hiking along the Jordan River trail in Michigan. The surronding area was marsh areas but this frog i came across was sitting in a little puddle of his own next to the marsh. He did not make any noise he just sat there and let me take this picture of him.

one_lost_backpacker has contributed a photo to this story.