The rainforest can be a noisy place to be , so how do you make yourself get word if you cease up in trouble ? For the remains robber frog , the answer is to give off an almighty shriek – but it ’s one that we humans ca n’t naturally try . However , a team of scientists have now successfully recorded it for the first fourth dimension .
The use of ultrasound is rough-cut in the creature universe for communication andecholocation – bats , dolphins , and whales are all know to use it . Frogs can use ultrasound to chatter too , though some researcher suspected that they might employ it to make distress calls as well .
Now , the screams of the clay robber batrachian ( Haddadus binotatus ) , a species endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest , have helped to confirm this theory .
Does this remind anyone else of the “Pop Cat” meme?Image courtesy of Ubiratã Ferreira Souza, illustration by Lucas Rosado
To do so , the team had to get the Gaul into refutation mode . This involved bear the frogs by their back leg , a try and prove method for simulate an attempt by apredator . In response , the frogs kick upstairs up the front of their bodies , jerk their heads back and open up their mouths wide almost as if prepare themselves , and then part shut their mouths .
As recordings revealed on two occasions , this slight end of the mouth coincided with a high - absolute frequency distress call . Though parts of the calls were between 7 to 20 kilohertz , a frequency that man can hear , there were also element that went above 20kHz and up to 44 kHz – that ’s ultrasound territory , which humans ca n’t hear .
The defensive positioning of the frogs suggests that the distress call also has a justificative intent , but exactly how the call is meant to ward off predator is unreadable . One possibility is that it scar a whole host of different predatory fauna away .
“ Some possible predator of amphibious vehicle , such as bats , rodents and minuscule primate , are able-bodied to emit and pick up sounds at this frequency , which humans ca n’t , ” order first generator Ubiratã Ferreira Souza in astatement .
“ One of our conjecture is that the distress call is addressed to some of these , but it could also be the case that the broad frequency banding is generalist in the horse sense that it ’s supposed to scare as many predators as possible . ”
But holler their heads off to scare away predators is just one possibility . It might also be a call out to the predatory animal of their predator , the investigator suggest .
“ Could it be the causa that the call is meant to appeal an owl that will snipe a snake that ’s about to eat the frog ? ” Souza hypothesized .
It ’s a question that the squad hop to do with next enquiry , which they also hope will determine whether there are other specie of frogs taciturnly hollo too .
The study is published in the journalacta ethologica .
