Toad Swallows Bat Then Smiles For Photo

Scroll down to the bottom of this article. Go ahead. You see that photo? What is that? Is someone conducting a science experiment on that frog? Is it an alien? It turns out that the bizarre photo shows what happens when a toad swallows a bat.

A park ranger at Cerros de Amotape National Park in Peru managed to capture a photo the moment after a cane toad swallowed a bat. Park ranger Yufani Olaya said that he’s seen the act before but that he’s never been able to capture it on camera.

Olaya said: “We’re unsure how common this is, but we do know that this is probably the first photographed record of a cane toad feeding on a bat… Cane toads are notoriously opportunistic feeders, and while they are native to South America this trait has made them infamously invasive in places like Australia.”

You may think that a toad’s diet consists mainly of small bugs but Amotape said that the Cane toad is a “fierce predator” who will just about anything it can fit in its mouth.

Olaya said: “Out of nowhere the bat just flew directly into the mouth of the toad, which almost seemed to be sitting with its mouth wide open.”

The cane toad may be fierce but sometimes its mouth is bigger than its stomach. Olaya said that the toad tried to swallow the bad but couldn’t quite stuff the wings into its mouth. The cane toad had to spit the bat out and wait for another meal.

The bat escaped relatively unharmed and was able to fly away.

Terrifying giant toad swallows a bat WHOLE http://t.co/M88l3sK6HU pic.twitter.com/lFI9v9fPTP

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) September 25, 2013