A clever African toad learned to copy a deadly snake to survive
CNNCNN — The Congolese Giant Toad shares its rainforest habitat with one of the most fearsome snakes in Africa. In a feat of ingenious costuming, the wily toad has learned to impersonate the venomous Gaboon viper to fool predators. Predators avoid the toad far more often than other species, researchers said, even though its size and caloric value make it an enticing meal. It’s not an exact recreation, but when the model is highly venomous and feared like the Gaboon vipers, predators usually can’t tell the difference, said Eli Greenbaum, study author and director of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Biodiversity Collections. “But when something like a Gaboon viper is that dangerous, the most visually based predators are probably going to make the calculation– ‘Gosh, if it even looks close to a Gaboon viper, I’m not going to touch it.’” What’s more, many species that share a habitat with the fearsome serpent are innately afraid of it and avoid it at all costs, particularly primates, so they might instinctively avoid the frog, too, though Greenbaum said the study cannot prove that yet.
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