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00:03 When women are harassed on the street, they might avoid eye contact or wear headphones to drown it all out.
00:08 And in the animal kingdom, it turns out female frogs also have a tactic to avoid incessant males.
00:13 They fake their own deaths.
00:15 A new study has uncovered the practice, and they say this changes a lot of what we thought we knew about frogs.
00:20 Previously, experts believed that females would simply submit during mating season,
00:24 during what are often referred to as mating balls,
00:27 or where a large number of frogs clump up, with many males vying and competing for mates,
00:31 and as many as six males can crowd onto one female.
00:34 This is where the females' death feigns and other tactics come into play,
00:37 with the researchers saying, quote, "We observed three female avoidance behaviors,
00:41 namely rotation, release calls, and tonic immobility."
00:45 Death feigning.
00:46 Most females, 83%, would attempt to twist their bodies to get away from their mates.
00:50 A further 48% would use release calls, where they would actually mimic the sounds of males.
00:55 And 25% would then fake their own death until released,
00:58 with the researchers finding that it worked better than other means,
01:01 especially for smaller female frogs.
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