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Toads are toxic. They secrete powerful bufotoxins, which cause convulsions & even death in animals that try to eat them.
Bufophagous snakes, like this baby hognose, eat toads. This little guy can eat all toads he wants without getting a tummy ache.
How’s that possible? Well...
Bufophagous snakes, like this baby hognose, eat toads. This little guy can eat all toads he wants without getting a tummy ache.
How’s that possible? Well...
Some snakes have developed an incredibly tool called toxin resistance. Over evolutionary time, the ability to resist the harmful effects of toxin has evolved in certain genera of snakes. They are now able to eat toads with minimal to no negative repercussions on their health.
These complex, long term interactions in nature are commonly referred to as “co-evolutionary arms races”. The race is between a predator and prey, as they each evolve to “outcompete” the other, in order to increase the chances of overall survival.
So, toad evolves higher toxicity to prevent snake predation —> snake evolves to resist toxins more successfully so they can keep eating toads —> toads become even more toxic - & the cycle continues on and on and on
This sort of co-evolutionary arms race is somewhat common in nature. For example, some king snakes are resistant to the venom of rattlesnakes they consume & garter snakes are resistant to newt toxins.
