Poison frogs have a curious habit of tapping their toes, and scientists may have finally uncovered why 鈥� to create vibrations that flush out unsuspecting prey.
Colourful and highly toxic poison frogs dwell in warm, moist habitats, such as rainforests and swamps, in Central and South America.
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One common behaviour of these animals is toe tapping. Previous studies have proposed (Dendrobates truncatus).
To see if this applies to a similar species, and her colleague , both at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studied dyeing poison frogs (Dendrobates tinctorius).
First, the pair took high-speed videos of 22 of the frogs as they were kept in enclosures that mimicked their natural habitat, with soil and leaves on the ground, either during or outside of feeding time. At feeding, the team dropped half a teaspoon of live fruit flies, the frogs鈥� prey, into the enclosures.
They found that the frogs tapped an average of 389 times per minute while being fed, compared with just 50 per minute otherwise, likening the behaviour to tap dancing.
In another part of the experiment, the pair found that the frogs鈥� tap rate varied depending on the surface they were on. When standing on leaves only, they tapped at least twice as fast as when on just soil, glass or gel.
This suggests the frogs may tap more when they know their prey will be able to feel the vibrations from their drumming the most, with this causing the insects to fly off the ground, where they can be more easily spotted and caught by the frogs.
鈥淔rogs can only really forage when prey is alive and moving,鈥� says Fischer. 鈥淪o maybe this tapping could be vibrationally startling the flies and making them move.鈥�
bioRxiv
