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Introduction to ecosystems
Introduction to ecosystems

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1.2 Behavioural strategies of evaders

Described image
Figure 6 The water-holding frog (Cyclorana platycephala) (left) and the painted burrowing frog (Neobatrachus sudelli) (right)

Small animals, classified as evaders, include desert amphibians and reptiles, and also mammals – rodents and insectivores. The term ‘evaders’ refers to the animals’ behaviour, which helps to prevent overheating of the body on hot sunny days, and avoids the need for cooling by evaporative water loss, which is not feasible for small animals living in an arid habitat. Evaders make use of microenvironments such as shady rock crevices, underground burrows and shade cast by plants, for behavioural thermoregulation. Evaders also prevent excessive cooling of the body by behaviour, retreating to shelter when the ambient temperature (Ta) plummets at night.

The ultimate evaders are desert frogs such as Cyclorana spp. and Neobatrachus from Australia, which spend most of the year in aestivation, inside a burrow. Aestivation is a special kind of dormancy, which enables animals to survive lack of water and high Ta during a hot dry season. During the short rainy season, desert frogs accumulate water in the bladder, where it remains during aestivation. A famous example, Cyclorana platycephala, is known as the water-holding frog; aboriginal people used to dig up the aestivating frogs and squeeze them, in order to collect and drink the water.

During aestivation, the frogs are protected from losing water to the dry soil in the burrow by a cocoon. At the end of the rainy season, the frogs burrow into the soil, and the skin undergoes a type of moulting process in which layers of epidermis are separated from the body but not shed, forming a protective cocoon, covering all parts of the body apart from the nostril openings. The cocoon thickens, becoming heavily keratinised, and prevents loss of water from the frog’s body during the 9–10 months of aestivation. At the start of the rainy season, heavy rain with consequent seepage of water into the frogs’ burrows, stimulates the frogs to emerge. Breeding and feeding occur during the short wet season.