Frog depression

[gwand]

I have had a pair of dwarf African frogs for 3 1/2 years. They have inhabited a 5 gallon planted tank all to themselves. They have been a loving pair spawning frequently over the years. The male frog died recently. The female frog acts like she is in mourning. At first, I thought she died too because I could not find her. But it turns out she has been hiding in the plants keeping completely to herself. This is very unusual behavior for her. Normally, she is out and about swimming and having fun. I do think she is going through some type of prolonged mourning- and depression-like behavior.

 

[GaryE]

Twenty years ago everyone would have been accusing you of projecting human behaviour and feelings onto an animal. Now, as we've finally had the humility to look at animals seriously, there's no reason why the frog wouldn't react with depression.
It's biochemistry in them and in us, and if they recognize their partner, which they seem to, then they would react. She may also be reacting to being alone, as a social animal.

Start writing the opera that tells this tale...I'd go to that.

 

[gwand]

Twenty years ago everyone would have been accusing you of projecting human behaviour and feelings onto an animal. Now, as we've finally had the humility to look at animals seriously, there's no reason why the frog wouldn't react with depression.
It's biochemistry in them and in us, and if they recognize their partner, which they seem to, then they would react. She may also be reacting to being alone, as a social animal.

Start writing the opera that tells this tale...I'd go to that.

In the early 1990s, I was studying the neurochemistry of depression in the hypothalamus. My model was the Siberian dwarf hamster. When the female of a pair died, or was removed from the cage, the male displayed depression like behavior. Often the male would die during a depressive episode. Interestingly, when the male died or was removed from the cage, the female did not have a depressive episode. She would readily take on a new mate. Now that is an opera.