Home > Animals > Interesting Facts > Make sure you retract your eyes 30 times before swallowing!

Make sure you retract your eyes 30 times before swallowing!

By: staff   Date: 04/5/2018

It has long been known that Frogs retract their eyes and close them while eating, leading scientists to suspect that frogs use their eyes to help them swallow. This suspicion was finally confirmed in 2004, when the northern leopard frog was observed by scientists retracting its eyes while swallowing crickets, actually using them to help push the food toward its esophagus!

Related Amphibians

(Rhinella marina)

(Litoria aurea)

(Lepidobatrachus laevis)

(Anaxyrus americanus)

Other Amphibians Facts
An Ample Amphibian

Before reptiles and mammals appeared to challenge amphibian supremacy on the land, amphibians were much larger. But while…
Learn more >>

Caecilians: The Limbless Enigma

Caecilians are amphibians with long, limbless bodies that resemble worms or snakes more than frogs or salamanders. Their…
Learn more >>

Only a Mother’s Love…

We are taught that toads leave their fertilized eggs in the water in long strings, which hatch into tadpoles, who live…
Learn more >>

Swiss Army Skin

Amphibian skin is not covered in hair, feathers, or scales. It is thin and permeable, which allows them to actually breathe…
Learn more >>

Interesting Animal Facts

When we talk about fast animals, the one that immediately comes to mind for most people is the cheetah, who can reach…


If a defining trait of mammals is that they give live birth to their young, how do you explain monotremes? Monotremes…


Invertebrates were the first animals to evolve. While their soft bodies left precious few records behind, there are fossils…


Could it be we have been too good at ridding our bodies of parasitic worms? Believe it or not, our efforts at keeping…


We are taught that toads leave their fertilized eggs in the water in long strings, which hatch into tadpoles, who live…


Fish are masters of aquatic living, though some manage to do pretty well on land, too! Of living species, the mudskipper…


NAIA - National Animal Interest Alliance Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
To learn more about the NAIA or about other NAIA programs, visit us at www.NAIAOnline.org
if you would like to help, join or support the NAIA or any of its programs please click here >>