Poison Frog's Homing Skills Baffle Scientists

When researchers deposited the little fanny-pack-wearing amphibians deep in the jungle, they were already planning a rescue mission. The poison frogs were disoriented, half a mile from home, and in dense underbrush they'd never seen before. Yet, impossibly, the frogs turned themselves in the right direction. They hopped straight back to their home turf. And the results would no doubt teach scientists something about animal navigation—if they had any idea how the frogs pulled it off. Most male poison frogs stick to one patch of territory on the rainforest floor, defending it against intruders. Several species are known to have homing abilities: when carried away from their homes, they return, though it's not clear how. The University of Vienna's Andrius Pasukonis started studying frog navigation with a species called (really) the brilliant-thighed poison frog, Allobates femoralis. In French Guiana, he found that these frogs could reliably find their way home ...