With Picky Eating, Bats Avoid Poison Prey
by Smithsonian staff
The loud love calls of tiny túngara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus) that reverberate through the nighttime jungles of Panama are bold advertisements for a suitable mate. But in singing, the frogs are taking a risk. Somewhere in the darkness an eavesdropping bat may be listening, ready to swoop down and swallow them whole.
Like the frogs, however, the bats also are taking a chance. Should a bat snatch up and swallow a poison frog in the darkness by mistake, a painful death would follow.
Now, a series of experiments conducted by scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have revealed that frog-eating fringe-lipped bats (Trachops cirrhosus) are, by necessity, much more discerning diners than previously known. In fact, scientists now know, from the time they begin their attack dive to just before they swallow a frog, the bats are continually evaluating their prey through such sensory modalities as sound, echolocation, touch and taste. A paper on the work is published online in the Springer journal Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature)…
(read more: Smithsonian Science)
(photo: Fringe-lipped Bat and Tungara Frog, by Christian Ziegler)
