HAVING MULTIPLE SEXUAL PARTNERS at the same time is often frowned upon, but in the frog world, the more the merrier.

New Australian research shows that individual females of the grey foam-nest tree frog (Chiromantis xerampelina) which mate with up to 12 partners at the same time, produce more resilient offspring than those individuals that mate with just one partner.

In what is documented as the most extreme form of ‘polyandry’ (sex with multiple male partners) in vertebrates, the unusual mating process lasts a few hours during a single night.

Read my article for the Australian Geographic in full here.