It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a frog?

The Wallace’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) doesn't spend it's time like some frogs, swimming or hopping around, It spends it's life in the trees. When It needs to escape from a predator, it jumps and glides to another tree! It has a lot of webbing in between it's toes to catch the air and glide, and extra padding on their toes to help them land.
They can glide up to 50 feet and land on tree branches or sometimes the ground, although they usually only go on the ground to mate or lay eggs.

It grows to be about 4 inches long. It can be found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Fortunately, This species of frog is considered "Least Concern" on the endangered list. Lets hope this amazing frog species keeps its numbers up and lives long!

A Frog Prince

The Prince Charles stream tree frog(Hyloscirtus princecharlesi) was recently named after Prince Charles. Amphibian Ark decided to name the frog after Prince Charles because of his rainforests project, which raises awareness of deforestation and climate change. This rare frog was found in 2008 by Luis A. Coloma in the Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park in Ecuador. It is in the family hylidae(tree frogs) and the genus hyloscritus, which contains 28 types of frogs.

And The Ugliest Frog Award Goes To...

Yes, this is really a frog.


The Purple Frog ( Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) is an Indian frog that was discovered in 2003. It spends most of the year underground and only comes out for about 2 weeks during the monsoon for breeding. It has a very thin, snout-like mouth and it's call sounds like a chicken's cluck. It is a living fossil, and allthough it lives in India, It is in the Sooglossidae family, which has it's origins in the Seychelles islands. The reason for this is that 100 million years ago, Madagascar, India,and the Seychelles were a landmass that split because of continental drift.

A see-through frog!

The Glass Frog (hyalinobatrachium pellucidum) grows up to 3 inches,has a lime green color, and of course, has transparent skin on it's stomach. You can see their liver, heart and GI Tract without harming the frog. Think about how many frogs could be saved if kids just looked at a Glass frog in science class instead of cutting one open! They generally live near rivers or streams or in forests.They lay their eggs on leaves to protect them from predators, but it does make them more vulnerable to parasites.Unfortunately, The glass frog has been endangered since 2004 because of loss of habitat. There are less than 5,000 glass frogs today.

The Prehistoric Devil

The Devil Frog( Beelzebufo) was the biggest, meanest frog ever to exist. It lived in Madagascar during the Cretaceous period at the end of the age of dinosaurs. It grew up to 16 inches, and weighed 10 pounds. It was likely that it ate mammals, amphibians, and even baby dinosaurs! It is an ancestor of Pac-Man Frogs, they live on land and snap up small animals, which is most likely what Devil frogs did. The largest frog alive is the Goliath frog(Conraua goliath), which is 12 inches long and weighs 3 pounds.

The Amazing Amphibian Wrestling Match

Today's article adds on to the crazy facts about Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs ( see yesterday's post).
 The male Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs are very territorial and will call almost continuously to mark their territory. When one male Strawberry Poison Dart Frog annoys another, they have a wrestling match that can go on for up to 20 minutes. Once one of the frogs is pinned down, they are the loser and the winner lets the looser walk away.

A hard working parent

The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Oophpaga Pumilio) can be found in Central America and grow to be about 17.5–22 mm in length.While most frogs lay thousands of eggs at a time and will leave them to fend for themselves,a Strawberry Poison Dart Frog will lay 4 to 6 eggs at a time. At the start of their lives, each  tadpole is cared for individually, and they each have their own pool of water to live in.
Obviously, if  Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs can care for up to 6 children in separate places each day, they are very hard working parents. 

After the female lays the eggs, the male watches over them and keeps them moist by peeing on them for about 10 days (until they hatch). Once they hatch , the mother takes each tadpole to the top of  a tree ( can be up to 40 ft) to put them each in the center of a bromeliad   which has leaves that form a cup that collects water. They can not be placed in the same plant because they are cannibalistic. Every few days after that for 6-8 weeks (until tadpoles change to frogs) the mother has to climb to the top of the trees again and lay unfertilized eggs for the tadpoles to eat. While the father does some work, the mother does most of it and spends the most energy. To say the least, these frogs are very good parents.