Purple Frog

Image via Wikipedia

There's something utterly wonderful about this frog! Something charming and heart warming. Something that brings a smile to the face.

Is it because he's rotund to the point of being spherical? Maybe it's reminding me of Santa Clause or something? Maybe it's Santa Claus at the end of that one, really long night shift, because the Purple Frog doesn't look cheerful at all. He appears decidedly grumpy, in fact. You'd probably get a slap across the face if you said "you look cute when you're angry", though.

The incredibly globular shape is also aided by the teeny-tiny head with its teeny-tiny eyes, not to mention the pointy snout with its teeny-tiny nostrils. Feeling like a "big bag of jelly" can't help either, even if a length of  7 cm isn't big for a bag of jelly at all.

"Utterly unique" you might say, "they don't make 'em like that anymore". And you'd be right.

The Purple Frog was described in 2003, though it had been found before and noone took much notice. No wonder he's so annoyed! They live in just a small part of a mountain range in southern India. It looks like they've been living there for a VERY long time - the Purple Frog can be considered a living fossil, having remained largely unchanged for some 130 million years.

It's so long ago that their closest living relatives are a few species of frog that live in the Seychelles, just north of Madagascar, and they're not even all that closely related to them! It seems that the Purple Frog hitch hiked on the Indian land mass as it broke away from Africa, and remained there as it crashed into Asia.

Video: ZSL

I guess they wouldn't even notice. They spend almost all their time burrowing underground eating termites. They come to the surface for just a short time each year during the monsoons, to mate in the water pools. With that very important task complete, it's back underground for them. And, from the looks of things, back on the couch, in front of the telly with a beer in hand. All the good things in life!