A Gentleman Frog That Takes Monogamy & Parenting Seriously

Monogamy isn't popular in the amphibian world. From frogs to salamanders, life in cold blood is all about meeting new ladies and hitting the road once the kids are born. So the male of a species of Peruvian poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator) stands out by proving that he is quite the keeper. He's not only the first monogamous frog ever found, he also stays home and makes sure the tadpoles are fed. Scientists studying these frogs say this unusual behavior--monogamy and co-operative parenting--could be directly attributed to the limited resources available to the frogs. They note that a broad study of 404 frog species show that species that deal with reduced food availability and greater difficulty in tadpole-rearing are more likely to have frog couples that work together to raise the young. These findings could possibly shed some light on the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors approached monogamy. Details of the findings are to be published in the April issue of