“Hey, wanna see a…”
I ask you, coyly.
“Sure,” you say, holding out your hands like a trusting fool. I plop this into your arms.
“Hold him like a baby, he’s heavy” I instruct you. Congratulations, you have just been forcibly introduced to the African Bullfrog, known in froggy-pet-owner circles as the Pixie Frog. They’re adorable. But while they’re a bunch of cute little dickens (dickenses? dickensians?), the nickname actually derives from the scientific name of the species (pyxicephalus adspersus) and not any positive qualities they possess. Though they have many! Probably.
Found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pixie Frog lives in wet areas where they eat pretty much anything they can fit into those ginormous mouths. (This includes fish, other frogs, bugs, snakes, lizards, other frogs, rodents, inattentive birds, other frogs, and probably you too if you hold still long enough.)
This is a creature born with neither fear nor conscience.
And it’s no idle threat either, because Pixie Frogs can grow to 10 inches long, which is well within ‘unreasonably huge for an amphibian’. Also, unlike most frogs, Pixie Frogs have freaking teeth. Two sharp spikes of bone grow from their lower jaw, giving them reverse-vampire fangs that they use to get a grip on prey. ALL THE BETTER TO EAT YOU WITH, MY DEARRRRR.
But in spite of all of this, Pixie Frogs remain popular pet animals, possibly because they will allow you to pick them up and carry them around like a newborn. And we can respect that. Just, you know, make sure you count your fingers after you hold one.
IMAGE SOURCES
1. torange.biz
2. Tom M., Flickr