How Female Frogs Tune Out Useless, Noisy Males Katherine J. Wu Before frat parties, there were frog ponds. Literal breeding grounds for some of the world’s noisiest bachelors, these lusty pools are where amphibians gather to woo mates. And as any frog researcher will tell you, they’re “super, super, super loud,” says Valentina Caorsi, a bioacoustician at the University of Trento in Italy. Some spots host hundreds of males from a dozen species, each belting out serenades that can register at more than 100 decibels apiece—close to what you’d hear at a rock concert or a rowdy nightclub. Sounds this intense can cause hearing loss; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends limiting exposure to such cacophony to less than 15 minutes a day. When scientists visit these ponds, they often don earplugs. “It hurts our ears,” says Kim Hoke, a biologist at Colorado State University.