A dangerous meal

It's impolite to splutter the first bite of your dinner. But to a type of Australian snake, this rude behavior is a affair of life and Death.

The snake in the grass, called a floodplain death adder, chuck two types of frogs that are hard to stomach. The frogs produce chemicals meant to defend them from predators.

This Dahl's toad carries enough poison to kill a snake, only only if the Snake River eats it immediately.

D. Nelson

Incomparable of these species, the Red gram's frog, prat kill a ophidian that tries to exhaust IT. The other species, the marbled salientia, is less dangerous simply calm down tough to eat. When attacked, information technology secretes a gluelike substance. Leaves and twigs get involved in this material, making a monumental sticky mess that gets in the way of anything nerve-racking to munch on information technology. A marbled frog can even get cragfast on the head of an attacking snake.

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Both frogs have good defense strategies. But the floodplain Acanthophis antarcticus knows how to get around each of them.

A team of scientists at the University of Sydney in Australia reports that floodplain destruction adders quickly strike these frogs, victimization their fangs to throw i maliciousness. But then, alternatively of gulping down their dinner immediately, the snakes sit back and wait for their fair gam to get along safe to eat.

That's because both the Dahl's frog's evasive toxin and the patterned toad frog's mucilage wear out down over time. After a while, the frog toxin is no longer inedible, and the glue is no more sticky.

The two substances go bad at dissimilar rates, though, and flood plain end adders appear to know the difference, say biologists Ben Phillips and Richard Shine, of the University of Sydney. Their research shows that an adder waits for a different distance of time depending happening the species of frog IT just struck.

In tests, the scientists found that the stickiness of the marbled frog glue decreased by as much as deuce-thirds after conscionable 10 minutes. And that's just almost how long an adder waits before eating a marbled frog, the researchers report.

But then, the snakes wait for about 40 minutes before eating a Dahl's frog. That's enough time for the frog's toxin to break inoperative into harmless substances, the researchers enjoin.

Merely even a quick strike gives snakes a taste of the Cajan pea frog's toxin. After conspicuous such a frog, a floodplain destruction adder thrashes around and lies on its back with its mouth open, Shine reports.

"It's like-minded the ophidian has just had a mouthful of chili pepper," helium says.

By comparison, when given frogs that have no material defenses, flood plain Death adders eat their prey like a sho after striking. Because these frogs don't produce whatsoever toxins, there's none reason to wait.

The canvass shows that snakes may be smarter than many people give them credit for, Shine concludes.

"Snakes, despite the fact that they've got this tiny little pea-size mastermind," he says "are clear capable of recognizing what kind of frog they've bitten."