From the largest living frog in the world to a strange frog that actually flies using webbing on its feet here are 12 weirdest frogs!
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7. The Purple Frog
Deemed as the “Ugliest Frog in the World”, the purple frog luckily spends most of its life burrowed deep in the grounds of India. It’s true, these frogs only emerge once a year during the monsoon season in order to mate and will return into the earth until it’s time for them to repeat the cycle once more. Because of all their time submerged underground, it makes it quite difficult to study this species and the adults weren’t formally described until 2003, even though the tadpoles had already been described all the way back to 1918.
6. The Wallace’s Flying Frog
Belonging to the family of moss frogs, Wallace’s flying frog is native to the regions of western Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula. It’s named after a biologist whose name was Alfred R. Wallace and he was the one to collect the first specimen of this species to be identified. These frogs don’t actually fly, but rather glide from tree to tree thanks to the help from the webbing on their four feet. They can even glide up to a distance of 50 feet and stick to trees as they land because of the extra soft padding on their toes. Their diet consists of insects and they commonly fall prey to tree climbing snakes.
5. The Indian Bullfrog
These colorful frogs can be found living from Myanmar to Nepal and even in Madagascar where they’re recognized as an invasive species thanks to their introduction to the island. Indian bullfrogs aren’t actually always this colorful. For most of the year, they’re actually a dull greenish color but once the mating season comes around it’s only the males that turn bright yellow and have indigo vocal sacs. If fancy bright colors aren’t enough to impress you, then go look up some videos where they’ll entertain you with their singing.
4. The Venezuelan Pebble Toad
This subspecies of frog is endemic to the region of Venezuela where it lives in a very restricted range, thus resulting it in being classified as vulnerable. These tiny little frogs only grow to be about an inch if they’re lucky but that’s not why they’re called pebble toads. It’s actually because of their unique ability that allows them to evade predators. If they sense that one is near, they will tense up all the muscles in their body into a rigid state and literally throw themselves off steep slopes to get away, since they’re unable to hop.
3. The Suriname Toad
Also known by the name Pipa Pipa, the Suriname toad is a species of frog that grows to be around 7 inches can be found living in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon. It can be recognized by a few of its distinguishing features that include its almost flat body, small eyes, while also lacking a tongue and set of teeth. Unlike a majority of most frogs that use their vocal sacs to produce mating calls, the Surinam toad emits a high-pitched clicking sound by hitting together two bones in its throat. That’s not the weirdest thing about this frog. The females actually carry their eggs under a layer of skin on their back and when it’s time the babies come bursting out as fully formed frogs.
2. The Goliath Frog
Goliath Frogs currently carry the title of the largest living frog species on earth. Unlike other species of frog, the goliath frog lacks any type of vocal sac and nuptial pads whatsoever which means they’re unable to produce any mating calls. These frogs tend to be captured as pets and are widely eaten in certain parts of Africa which have led the species to be labeled as endangered. Because of their conservation status, even the Equatorial Guinean government has stepped in to only allow 300 of these frogs to be exported each year.
1. Darwin’s Frog
Found in the forest regions of Chile and Argentina, this species of frog was first recorded back in 1841 and named after Charles Darwin who had previously discovered it. At first glance, Darwin’s frog might not seem all that weird on the outside but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. An interesting ability that the males of this species are capable of performing is that they care for their young by swallowing them. While still in their embryonic stage, the father will swallow the eggs and care for them in his vocal sac. After a few days when they’ve developed passed their tadpole stage, he’ll spit out his fully formed frog babies.