Austrian scientists from the University of Vienna have revealed an unusual way to protect young Wallace’s flying frogs from predators. Amphibians save themselves from being eaten by imitating the droppings of larger animals because of their brown color with white spots. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (BES).
To test their hypothesis, biologists made multicolored wax frog figurines and placed them in an aviary with birds of prey.
The experiment showed that birds attack mostly red prey and attack green objects last. However, if the red frog had white markings, birds attacked it half as often as they attacked completely red objects.
“To our knowledge, this is the first experimental study of a vertebrate masquerading as animal feces,” the authors of the scientific paper said.
The spots on amphibians disappear after a year, when individuals become adults and acquire the characteristic emerald green color.
Wallace’s flying frogs or black-legged copepods are found in the rainforests of Borneo and Malaysia. Amphibians can travel up to 16 meters in the air by gliding while flying, thanks to the membranes on their claws.
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