Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.īird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. It’s clear that webbed feet have been a big evolutionary hit. And a parallel adaptation shows up in other creatures that spend time in the water-like otters, frogs and salamanders. A bird may lift its foot away from its body on the forward stroke, actually giving itself a little extra lift and speed.įour hundred different species of birds have webbed feet. And many birds have mastered a stroke that any human swimmer might envy. Then as the bird pulls its foot forward, the toes fold together, to minimize resistance. The toes and webs spread out as the bird pushes its foot backward. In fact, they’re such a nifty adaptation that they evolved, independently, in several bird groups.ĭucks and geese have them, as do gulls, cormorants, loons, pelicans, penguins, puffins and boobies.Įxperiments suggest that a triangular webbed foot is beautifully designed to propel a bird, or other creature, through the water.
It is an endangered species, owing to its small populations, the limited extent of its range, and the ongoing decline of its habitat.Webbed feet are ideal for birds that swim, on the water’s surface or under. The golden poison frog is native to five pockets of lowland habitat in the upper Río Saija drainage of the Amazonian rainforest, along Colombia’s Pacific coast. Remarkably, the snake Liophis epinephelus is immune to the poison, making it the frog’s only known predator. Similar to many other brightly colored animals, its vividly painted body serves as a warning of its toxicity. Although commonly yellow, adults may be anywhere from orange to pale green in color. A typical wild golden poison frog has from 700 to 1,900 micrograms of toxin in its system, a fraction of which-200 micrograms or less-is enough to kill a human.
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But coating its brightly colored skin is a lethal substance known as batrachotoxin. Small and with big round eyes, the golden poison frog ( Phyllobates terribilis) looks relatively harmless. Phyllobates terribilis © kikkerdirk/Fotolia
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