Author: Elizabeth Palermo
Article Source: Live Science
Date of Publication: September 4, 2015
Area of Science:Animal Behavior
Summary: The article talks about how there is frog cannibalism, which means there are frogs eating other frogs. The bigger frogs usually end up eating the smaller frogs. For example, with every 1-milime ter(0.04 inches) increase in body size, a frog becomes 2.8 percent more likely to eat other frogs. Frogs that are transferred into new areas are most likely the ones to eat the frogs that are already there. For example, non-native frogs such as the African clawed frogs were eating frogs who were native frogs. There are also frogs who eat frogs from their own species sometimes being their brothers or sisters. They noticed that if there is a large population of frogs in one area then there is most likely to be frog cannibalism, but in areas with fewer frogs there is no frog cannibalism.
Facts:
1. with every 1-milime ter(0.04 inches) increase in body size, a frog becomes 2.8 percent more likely to eat other frogs.
2. frogs ate members of their own species about a third as often as they ate frogs of species other than their own.
3. It's not uncommon for a frog to chow down on another frog.
4.While it may seem like frogs are insectivores, these amphibians are actually generalist carnivores.
5.biologists have conducted studies showing that certain frogs eat their siblings.
Opinion: I have never heard of frog cannibalism but I find the topic very interesting. I always thought that frogs only ate insects, but apparently they don't. I found it interesting that some frogs even eat frogs from their own species, sometimes they eat their own brothers and sisters. Do they not recognize who their siblings are? I think that it's weird that they eat other frogs in their same species because they end up eating family members.
Vocabulary:
1. Anuraphagy: frog-eating
2.biodiversity: the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem
3. native: of indigenous origin or growth
4. carnivores:an animal that feeds on flesh
Link: http://www.livescience.com/52086-frog-cannibalism-study.html