Meal or mate: Exploring the evidence of sexual cannibalism among amphibians
Posted by
JD (aka Jason Dean)
Aug 1 '24, 11:04
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3.2 Heterospecific predation by Litoria aurea
During the 2021 breeding season, we made two observations of L. aurea consuming other frog species in proximity to exclusion fencing in the southern portion of Kooragang Island (Figure 2). In both cases, an adult female was observed on the ground with a spotted marsh frog, Limnodynastes tasmaniensis, partially consumed but still alive. Both prey frogs were adults based on size, with the sex of one unknown and the other likely female based on the presence of flattened phalanges. The L. tasmaniensis individuals were being swallowed from the rear (vent first), with the legs already ingested and the heads still exposed. The prey individuals also showed inflation of their lungs, possibly a defensive mechanism to resist being consumed (Kaiser et al., 2016). It was unconfirmed whether these predation attempts were successful.
3.3 Adult–adult cannibalism in Litoria aurea
The female was situated at the entrance of a natural hole formation in the bank of the pond and had its mouth around the top of the male's right thigh, which had been entirely ingested. Over a period of 50 s, the female maintained its grip on the male and dragged it down into the hole. The captive male emitted several distress vocalisations and tried to resist being pulled further into the hole by gripping onto nearby vegetation. The male eventually escaped the female's grip and rapidly moved out of the hole.
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