Science, Space and Technology News 2024
) emits a distress call at frequencies that humans cannot hear but predators can. Credit: Henrique Nogueira
“Some potential predators of amphibians, such as bats, rodents and small primates, are able to emit and hear sounds at this frequency, which humans can’t. One of our hypotheses is that the distress call is addressed to some of these, but it could also be the case that the broad frequency band is generalist in the sense that it’s supposed to scare as many predators as possible,” said Ubiratã Ferreira Souza, first author of the article.
There are also recordings of ultrasound calls by three Asian amphibian species, but the frequencies concerned are used for communication between individuals of the same species. In mammals, ultrasound use is common among whales, bats, rodents and small primates. Its use by amphibians for self-defense against predators was unknown until the study by Souza et al.
Reference: “Ultrasonic distress calls and associated defensive behaviors in Neotropical frogs” by Ubiratã Ferreira Souza, Guilherme Augusto-Alves, Mariana Retuci Pontes, Lucas Machado Botelho, Edélcio Muscat and Luís Felipe Toledo, 8 January 2024,The study was also supported by FAPESP via a doctoral scholarship awarded to Guilherme Augusto Alves and another project led by Toledo.SciTechDaily: Home of the best science and technology news since 1998.
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