- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
- Japan govt admits doctoring 'untidy' cabinet photo
- Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack
- Darvish tames Ohtani as Padres thrash Dodgers
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Family affair as LeBron, Bronny James make Lakers bow
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.61% | 24.55 | $ | |
RIO | -0.27% | 69.51 | $ | |
SCS | -0.57% | 12.897 | $ | |
AZN | -0.51% | 77.08 | $ | |
GSK | 0.08% | 38.85 | $ | |
NGG | -1.22% | 65.7 | $ | |
RELX | -0.83% | 45.91 | $ | |
VOD | 0.23% | 9.682 | $ | |
BTI | -0.23% | 35.21 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.21% | 24.76 | $ | |
BCC | 0.45% | 139.53 | $ | |
BCE | -0.58% | 33.514 | $ | |
BP | 0.72% | 33.12 | $ | |
JRI | -0.23% | 13.25 | $ |
Young frogs may camouflage selves as animal poo: study
The young offspring of a frog native to Southeast Asia display an "unusual colour pattern", probably to camouflage themselves "as animal droppings" to escape predators, according to a study.
A team of researchers studying juvenile Wallace's flying frogs -- which are bright red with small white dots -- made the findings thanks to an experiment at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo, the zoo said on Thursday.
"The young frogs probably count on the fact that they will be seen but considered something inedible," University of Vienna researcher Susanne Stueckler said.
She and several others recently published their findings in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
To test their hypothesis that the frogs were trying to escape predators, the researchers created differently coloured wax frog models and placed them in the zoo's rainforest house.
The house "contains a diverse community of avian predators that are well known to use colour vision to detect frogs as prey", the study notes.
It found that the attack rate was significantly greater for red than for green but was reduced by half when red models had white spots.
"We show that the unusual colour pattern of juveniles likely functions as a masquerade of animal droppings," the researchers said.
"(It may) function as anti-predator strategy... so that predators misidentified them as inedible objects," they added.
"To our knowledge, this is the first experimental exploration of a vertebrate masquerading as animal droppings."
The frogs' spots disappear after one year, "when individuals mature into adults and develop their iconic emerald green colour".
Wallace's flying frogs can glide 16 metres (52 feet) from tree to tree thanks to skins between their toes and appendages on their arms and legs.
O.Johnson--AMWN