Scientists at Anhui University in China have discovered that female frogs communicate and flirt with males by winking, a social behavior that until now was considered exclusive to some primates, and especially humans.
The finding was published in the latest issue of the specialized journal Current Biology, where the researchers explain that they used frogs of the species Odorrana tormota, whose habitat is torrents and high-flow rivers and which communicate mainly using ultrasound.
However, the research showed that female frogs also use winking to “encourage” males to initiate the mating ritual, indicating that eyelid movement in non-primate animals may also have social and not just physiological.
Until now, it was considered that winking in non-primate species only served to lubricate the cornea and clean the eyes of foreign particles such as dust.
The scientists carried out the study through field observations and controlled mating experiments, a process in which they found that only males who had received a wink from the female managed to mate successfully and were not rejected.
According to the leader of the research, Zhang Fang, cited by the official Xinhua agency, the discovery represents an important advance in the field of social and communicative behavior of frogs, and therefore in the knowledge of the origin and evolution of visual communication. between animals.
