Why This Frog’s Poisonous, Inflatable Backside Is Staring at You
This South American frog’s inflatable rear end puts on quite a show for predators.
Humans are forever trying to get their rear ends to look either smaller or bigger, but nothing we do—nothing—can make our cabooses as amazing as that of the Cuyaba dwarf frog, or Physalaemus nattereri.
Yet this frog’s glamorous hindquarters are meant to repel attention, not attract it.
We looked into why such a wonderfully weird amphibian is left alone, by both people and predators.
There are about 123 known species of frogs worldwide with warning colors, known as aposematic coloration, on the back or underside of their bodies, says João Tonini, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and collaborator on Projeto Bromeligenous, a project studying the relationship between Brazil's frogs and bromeliad plants.
In some species, such as deadly poison arrow frogs,
