Based on the text, what can most reasonably be inferred about the males' response to the recorded wingbeats?

Question

Male túngara frogs attract mates by calling at night. A basic "whine" is enough to be heard, but males often add extra notes called "chucks," and females strongly prefer calls with more chucks. Chucks come with a cost, however: frog-eating bats use them to pinpoint a calling male's location. In one experiment, researchers played recordings of bat wingbeats near calling males. The males continued to call, but they added far fewer chucks than they had before the recordings began.

Accepted Answer

B. The males were reducing the chance that a predator would locate them.. The text says chucks help bats pinpoint a male's location, and males cut back on chucks when they heard bat wingbeats; the reasonable inference is that dropping chucks lowers the risk of being found by a predator. A contradicts the text, which says the males kept calling. C invents a mechanism (masking) that the text never mentions and that would not explain a selective drop in chucks. D reverses the reported finding—the males produced *fewer* chucks, not more.

Answer

A. The males had already attracted mates and no longer needed to call. — The text explicitly says the males continued to call after the recordings began, so this contradicts what's stated.

Answer

C. The males could not hear their own calls over the sound of the wingbeats. — Masking isn't mentioned anywhere in the text, and it wouldn't explain why the males dropped only the chucks while continuing to whine.

Answer

D. The males add more chucks when bats are nearby than when they are not. — You've reversed the finding: the males added *far fewer* chucks once the wingbeat recordings played, not more.

Information and Ideas practice question

Answer: B. The males were reducing the chance that a predator would locate them.

Why the other answers are wrong

More Information and Ideas questions