foot-flagging

• foot flagging, footflagging

foot-flagging (plural foot-flaggings)

1. (herpetology, ethology, also attributive) A kind of visual display done by male frogs, where the individual raises one or both hind legs and spread the toes.

   Synonym: foot-flag

   • 1992 June, Stephen J Richards, Christina James, “Foot-flagging displays of some Australian frogs”, in Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Nature, volume 32, number 1, page 302, column 1:

     These include the first records of nocturnal foot-flagging and foot-flagging displays exhibited outside a rainforest environment.

   • 2004, Adolfo Amézquita, Walter Hödl, “HOW, WHEN, AND WHERE TO PERFORM VISUAL DISPLAYS: THE CASE OF THE AMAZONIAN FROG HYLA PARVICEPS”, in Herpetologica, volume 60, number 4, →DOI, page 422, column 1:

     During a foot-flagging display, a male raised one or both hind legs by extending it/them into an arc above the substrate level. The leg was then returned to the body side. At maximum extension, toes were outstretched, spread, and sometimes vibrated.

   • 2009 June, Doris Preininger, Markus Boeckle, Walter Hödl, “Communication in Noisy Environments II: Visual Signaling Behavior of Male Foot-Flagging Frogs Staurois latopalmatus”, in Herpetologica‎^[1], volume 65, number 2, page 167, column 2:

     We documented if foot flaggings were carried out with one leg or both simultaneously.

   • 2024 January 30, Elizabeth Pennisi, quoting Nigel Anderson, “When frogs can’t croak to get a mate, they dance”, in Science Magazine‎^[2], Washington: AAAS, archived from the original on 30 January 2024:

     Foot flagging has evolved at least six times among anurans. It arises in species living in noisy environments, such as under waterfalls, and thus “may have evolved to solve the same environmental and sensory problem,” Anderson explains.

• Hodl, Walter; Amézquita, Adolfo (2001), “Visual signaling in anuran amphibians” (chapter 10), in Ryan M., editor, Anuran communication‎^[3], Washington: Smithsonian Inst. Press., pages 121–141