A recent study by the Australian National University has found that frogs' jumping style depend on the surroundings.
Researchers said that different species of frog have different leaping styles. For example: tree frogs reach great heights but do not cover the same distance with their jumps, aquatic frogs jump long distances but remain close to the ground and the leap of burrowing frogs were both low in height and distance.
"Burrowing frogs have very squat bodies and short limbs," Lead researcher Miss Marta Vidal-Garcia said in a press release. "This is because they tend to occupy arid environments so this helps to minimise water loss through their permeable skin. The aquatic frogs, however, have more streamlined bodies with longer limbs to improve swimming ability."
Frogs are known to have a remarkable Olympian ability to cover huge distances. For example: a bullfrog can successfully leap a distance of about 1 metre and tree frogs can jump 150 times their own body length.
But, the new study found that these jumps take different shapes based on the surroundings that the frogs dwell in.
For the study, researchers used two high speed video cameras to record three-dimensional view of the jumps of 230 wild frogs from 30 different species. Researchers filmed the movements of the frogs mostly in the night during the breeding season, as they are more likely to be active then.
The researchers examined the videos by using computer software and considering various factors including height, distance and speed. They found that frogs from various habitats are associated with distinct jumps.
