The Panamanian Golden Frog communicates by semaphore
Here’s another quote from A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear:
In a sense, evolution grants every living thing a brilliant talent for squeezing life from its surroundings-the more extreme the habitat, the greater the savant. Frogs, for example: The Panamanian Golden Frog, which cannot make itself heard above the roaring waterfalls of Panama, attracts mates through the use of semaphore.
Looking around in Google, it sounds like this is the species Atelopus zeteki, and the popular theory is that this behaviour evolved because they live in an especially noisy environment. The frogs aren’t entirely mute – they can make a sound, but it’s fairly quiet.
From a 2008 BBC News article:
Hilary Jeffkins, senior producer of Life In Cold Blood, said the semaphoring behaviour of the Panamanian golden frog was very unusual.
“Normally, frogs would croak to get their message across but it’s too noisy,” she said. “An extra mechanism they’ve evolved is to wave to each other.”
That article links to a now-broken video, but I think I found the clip on a BBC YouTube account. You can see the movements quite clearly – calling it semaphore might be a stretch, but there’s some form of non-audible communication going on here.
For reasons I won’t put in a blog post, this idea is particularly amusing to me. If you want to know why, ask about it when you see me in person. 😉