A ranger in Peru's Cerros de Amotape National Park discovered that humans aren't the only ones with Halloween spirit, when they discovered this large cane toad sporting what seem to be vampire wings. Phil Torres, a naturalist for Peru Nature Rainforest Expeditions, shared the ranger's photo, which depicts the hungry hopper swallowing a low-flying bat – or at least trying to, as you can see.
“Out of nowhere the bat just flew directly into the mouth of the toad, which almost seemed to be sitting with its mouth wide open,” Torres told the Huffington Post in an article yesterday. Luckily for the bat (but not so much for the toad), the potential meal ended up escaping.
Torres said bats often get devoured by a wide assortment of ravenous creatures – which we've recounted a few times before, including bat-snaring spiders and giant centipedes which literally hang from cave ceilings and pluck them out of the air. (Poor guys just can't seem to catch a break lately.) Torres also cited unusual cases of birds and frogs gobbling up the winged mammals. “These types of unexpected species interactions probably occur much more often than we think,” he added, “it's just that we're not always lucky enough to have a camera alongside to capture the moment.”