The yellow stripes help the frog jump faster.
Category Archives: Amphiban
Poison Dart Frog
The skin of the dart frog exudes a form of poison. This is why it is unwise to drink the water when traveling in central America.
Frog
Few people know that Ducati has entered the frog business.
“I can’t believe you just said that.”
Green Tree Python (Morelia viridis) and Borneo Eared Frog (Polypedates otilophus)
The sticky toes on frogs allow them to climb branches, leaves, glass and snakes. This should give “intelligent design” supporters something to think about.
Powder Blue Reed Frog (Heterixalus madagascariensis)
OMG! There’s a giant* frog on your screen. Get it off! Get it off!
* If you are viewing this post on your phone, this is a cute little frog and you should feed it flies.
Web Footed Gecko (Pachydactylus rangei)
The web-footed gecko, also known as the trap-door gecko uses its feet to create the webbing that hinges the trapdoor to the ground. Then, when it senses prey nearby, will pop up the door to grab dinner.
White’s Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)
When you’re making a frog, you can pretty much just stick the eyes in any which way. It’ll all work out fine.
Cane Toad (Rhinella marina)
In the early days of the world, there was naught but dirt, water, mud and grass. Kuwatuwan The Uninspired, creator of the Darien isthmus (construction projects involve a lot of outsourcing) sat and thought. As he thought, he toyed with the mud and dirt, forming it into a small pile. Looking down on what he made, he smiled. Then he sneezed. Having inadvertently breathed life into his creation, he blinked slowly as the toad flopped out of his hand and hopped away. Kuwatuwan looked about to make sure his supervisor wasn’t looking his way. Noticing that she was distracted overseeing Pacific Ring of Fire, he nudged the toad under a large clump of grass and wandered off to work on his next assignment … digging the Himalayan sea.
A while later, the toads were taken to Australia to eat the grey-backed cane and Frenchi beetles. Because introducing animals in Australia always goes well.
Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)
Every year, I run a little contest based on the WWF Adoption Guide and let people cast a vote (or a poem) for which animal gets to come home and live with me. One that is perpetually on the list is the Hellbender Salamander. Until that happened, I had no idea that these things existed. It was years after that that I finally saw my first one.
They’re interesting, not in the least, because they have numerous other interesting names, such as “snot otter”, “Allegheny alligator”, and “leverian water newt”. I mean, seriously, in what world is “hellbender salamander” the most innocuous choice for a name. Oh, and they’re all dying out because that’s the sort of things amphibians are doing these days. Sure would be nice if we could stop that from happening.
As mentioned earlier, the rarest animals are rare even in zoos. I visited several zoos that had them before I finally found one that not only had one on display, but also had clean water and a display that I could shoot through. So, I was finally able to see one. Perhaps it would have been easier to find them earlier if I had known that they look like someone took a salamander skin and stuffed it with random pebbles.
I’m also puzzled at its being yellow, as that’s not the colour they are in Google images, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.
Australian Green Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)
The sticky skin and wide toes of the Australian green tree frog make it very easy for it to climb branches and very difficult for it to play the mandolin.