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posted by martyb on Sunday August 09 2020, @10:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the passing-interest dept.

Frog eats beetle, beetle escapes alive through frog's butt:

We've all eaten something that seems to run right through us, but rarely do our meals get to live another day once they leave our bodies. Yet that's exactly what happens when frogs snack on the aquatic beetle Regimbartia attenuata.

In a new study published Monday in the journal Current Biology, Kobe University ecologist Shinji Sugiura reveals more about the evolution of escape behavior in prey animals, most notably the aquatic beetle.

[...] When the Pelophylax nigromaculatus frog gulps the beetle, it can survive by swimming through the frog's digestive tract to later be pooped out intact and alive. Previously, it was suspected frogs spit out beetles that moved so erratically.

Sugiura revealed that 93 percent of the beetles fed to a frog during the study escaped the frog's "vent" (anus) within four hours, "frequently entangled in fecal pellets." The quickest beetle escape was an impressive six minutes.

Because the aquatic beetle has evolved to become a better swimmer by kicking its legs and can breathe underwater by trapping a small pocket of air under its wing covers, the beetle may have also evolved to survive inside a frog's intestines long enough to escape through its captor's tush.

A short video is available on Twitter and YouTube.

Journal Reference:
Shinji Sugiura. Active escape of prey from predator vent via the digestive tract, Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.026)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:10PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:10PM (#1033779)

    "In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve the gerbil," Eric Tomaszewski told bemused doctors in the Severe Burns Unit of Salt Lake City Hospital. Tomaszewski, and his homosexual partner Andrew "Kiki" Farnum, had been admitted for emergency treatment after a felching session had gone seriously wrong.

    "I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum and slipped Raggot, our gerbil, in," he explained. "As usual, Kiki shouted out 'Armageddon', my cue that he'd had enough. I tried to retrieve Raggot but he wouldn't come out again,so I peered into the tube and struck a match, thinking the light might attract him."

    At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what happened next. "The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and a flame shot out the tubing, igniting Mr Tomaszewski's hair and severely burning his face. It also set fire to the gerbil's fur and whiskers which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the intestine, propelling the rodent out like a cannonball."

    Tomaszewski suffered second degree burns and a broken nose from the impact of the gerbil, while Farnum suffered first and second degree burns to his anus and lower intestinal tract.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:13PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:13PM (#1033783)

    https://immediatesafety.org/practice-safe-gerbiling/ [immediatesafety.org]


    This leaves us with the issue of retrieval. Please, people. For the sake of the gerbil, use a leash. Not only will getting the little guy back go a lot more smoothly, but it’ll also eliminate the need for an embarrassing trip to the ER. We’ve found that doctors and nurses treat those x-rays like 6-year-old boys treat Pokémon cards.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:24PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:24PM (#1033819)

      There used to be a website rectalforeignobjects.com in the late 90s that featured these cases.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:44PM (#1033828)

        User1: Where can I find warez??

        User2: Try this awesome site www.goatse.cx

        User1: Thanks!

        User1: Oh god whyyyy....

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:47PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:47PM (#1033830)

        That's all behind me, now.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @03:34PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @03:34PM (#1033851)

          Yes, we know, there's a picture of it on a website. It's quite famous. You have nice fingers, btw, but should get that prostrate checked. Oops, sorry, most of the internet seems to have done that for you.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @04:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @04:47PM (#1033875)

    The story is almost certainly fiction. Stories of "gerbilling" were circulated a lot during the 80s when gays were out, but society was still very homophobic.

    According to Snopes, there are no documented cases in the medical journals.

  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday August 09 2020, @08:59PM

    by Bot (3902) on Sunday August 09 2020, @08:59PM (#1034006) Journal

    >In retrospect...
    literally

    --
    Account abandoned.