Apparently no one ever bothered to tell a big ol’ funky frog that flapping flabby arms and big webbed feet is not the best way to take flight. Perhaps that’s because no one even knew the frog existed until its recent discovery by amphibian biologist Jodi Rowley of the Australian Museum in Sydney as she trekked through the lowland forests of Southern Binh Thuan and Dong Nai provinces in Vietnam. Yet, of the over 80 (now) known species of flying frogs, these newly recognized critters are “one of the most lying of flying frogs,” noted Rowley, who decided to name them in honor of her mother Helen, a woman who “steadfastly supported her only child trekking through the forests of Southeast Asia in search of frogs.”
While the female Helen’s Flying Frogs are larger than the males, both are described as having “huge hands and aerodynamic feet, which are webbed all the way back to the toepad that enable them to parachute from tree to tree.”
What is equally amazing is the fact that the frogs remained unknown for so long, especially when they live only sixty miles from Ho Chi Minh City with its population of 9 million people. Yet, so far Rowley, herself, has reportedly only found five of them in 2 patches hemmed in by rice paddies. Her biggest fear is that now that they have been found, they may soon be lost as more and more people infringe on their habitat.
For related articles see http://www.examiner.com/article/vampire-frogs-discovered-vietnam For related articles check out http://www.examiner.com/pets-in-hartford/the-nefarious-mr-burns-toad and http://www.examiner.com/pets-in-hartford/wanted-alive-worldwide-hunt-for...
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