[Animals] Andean toad

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The strategy of "Batesian mimicry" is present in other groups of animals, but it is the first time that it has been discovered among toads.

By El Confidencial

An African toad has found a way to survive its predators. Scientists at the University of Texas at El Paso (United States) have discovered that Congolese giant toads manage to resemble a poisonous snake and act like it in order to preserve its existence. This strategy, known among scientists as "Batesian mimicry," is commonly present in other groups of animals, but it is the first time it has been discovered among toads.
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"This is the first example in the world, of which we are aware, of a frog trying to imitate a poisonous snake," says Eli Greenbaum, from the department of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). "It's rare for frogs to participate in a copycat complex in general."
Casual discovery
The toad in which this peculiar strategy has been discovered is the Congolese giant toad (Sclerophrys channingi), found only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And the discovery began in the most casual way, according to New Scientist.
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"This is the world's first example of a frog trying to imitate a poisonous snake" In 2017, Greenbaum was giving a genetics conference and showed a photograph of a Congolese giant toad. At the end of class, a student named Theresa Edmondston approached her to tell her that she kept poisonous snakes as pets and that the photo resembled the head of one of her favorites: a Gabon viper (Bitis gabonica). Both Edmondston and Greenbaum decided to investigate the similarity between the two species. "It became clear over time that, yes, there was a very intriguing similarity," says the UTEP professor.

The snake's head has a distinctive pattern on the top and back, and the toad's back appeared to mimic this. At the same time, the last clue was obtained from the Natural Sciences Research Center in Lwiro, Democratic Republic of the Congo. There, Chifundera Kusamba, one of the researchers at the center, told Greenbaum that he came across a type of animal, similar to the one described, that let out a small hiss, which sounded like a balloon when deflated. Greenbaum immediately realized that these could be the toads mimicking the menacing hiss of the Gaboon viper.
Learn from snakes

The team has also found that toads tend to live alongside snakes, which makes sense - a toad living in a snake-free zone would not scare off any predators because it would not be familiar with the threat of poison. Similarly, Congolese giant toads have unusually smooth skin, especially on the back. "I think that's part of the deception, to make them look like the heads of these vipers," says Greenbaum.