Adventure Ausrama Blog

Though South American animals have been named little is known about many of them. Scientists fell into the trap of taking frogs for granted. They got more than they bargained for.  Aparasphenodon brunoi and Corythomantis greeningi are the first venomous frogs to be identified. The dart frogs have bony spines on their faces that they jab into potential predators. Like snakes, the frogs inject a toxin into the body of threats. This is odd really, because the frogs have evolved this defence while having no natural enemies. The target of a frog was Edmund Brodie, a biologist, who suffered intense, radiating pain lasting for over five hours. He was lucky: a gram of this venom can kill 300,000 mice or 80 people. It would take many frogs, though, to make this much toxin. The attack on the scientist was a glancing blow by C. greeningi , which is not as potent as A. brunoi . The team was not going to test out A. brunoi , however. Another thing was learned by the biologis...

Australia's death adder is contributing to its own extinction. Moving around to hunt their prey is not their method. An adder tempts its victims by laying in ambush and wiggling its tail tip. By wiggling its tail, however, it is noticed by cane toads, frogs and lizards who eagerly gulp down the tasty meal. After cane toads were introduced into Australia death adder numbers plummeted. Ironically as the cane toad attacks the snake it is bitten, so after its meal the cane toad dies - mutual suicide. Even if the snake eats the toad it will end up dead because cane toads are poisonous. For millions of years death adders have survived by enticing their prey within easy reach. Now this behavior is leading to their demise. Man cannot intervene to prevent this. There is nothing that can be done. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ http://adventure--aust...

Australian green tree frogs live in the dry desert without dehydrating. This has been a mystery - until now. They move from a cool night into warm burrows. Then they "mist-up". They sit in the cold air for hours until they can hardly move. There is a good reason for this. It has been discovered that their skin "takes-on" water. Inside the burrows water is in the air due to the warmth. Droplets form on their cold skin by condensation. A group of tree frogs frequented a hollow tree in the dry outback. Researchers caught some frogs, cooled them in the cold night air, lowered them into the log in a cage for a quarter of an hour, Then tested them. The frogs gained 0.4 grams in weight, their bodies glistening with water droplets. It is now believed that lizards and spiders also use this technique to get water. Earlier work in the laboratory indicates this. Just a little water is enough to survive. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.ty...

Things have been falling from the sky for hundreds of years with no solid explanation. It has been claimed that marble pillars from ancient Rome fell gently to earth a century or so ago. This is deemed to be just a story, but Frogs, fish, worms and squid being dumped onto the earth during rainstorms is fact. The main theory is that they were picked up from small shallow ponds by whirlwinds. This is just theory and has not be proven. Indeed, no one has observed actual "pick up" occurring. When a fall has taken place more of the same can be expected. The species of frogs and fish are not always local. They are from different climes than the dumping location. Such passengers of storm have one thing in common: they are generally small. Although stories of small creatures falling with rain are usually much the same, some cases are truly extraordinary. Fish fell from the sky during a Singaporean earthquake in 1861. Leonard Bourne was running in a rainstorm in 1966 in Australia when...