While inside their egg cases, red-eyed tree frog tadpoles are easy meals for predators such as snakes or wasps. But video recorded by researchers at Boston University shows these baby frogs have a biological escape plan to avoid being eaten. The tree frog tadpoles store and can quickly release enzymes that dissolve their egg cases if the frogs are under threat. This type of emergency hatch demonstrates that these baby amphibians have survival instincts at a young age.
Read related article by Ed Yong on Not Exactly Rocket Science.
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/15/unborn-frogs-can-still-escape-from-snakes/
Learn more about red-eyed tree frogs:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/red-eyed-tree-frog/
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Tadpoles vs. Snake: Babies Hatch Super-Quickly to Escape | National Geographic
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