February 23, 2013 - Desert Rain Frog

[CaliforniaMama]

He's not much to look at, and to me he looks more like a beach frog covered in sand than a desert frog, but he has a pretty impressive defense mechanism. Check out the video below. Put your coffee down first, though!



This video was posted by Dean Boshoff, wildlife enthusiast and photographer, on Feb 13th. It quickly went viral.

The frog is Breviceps macrops, the desert rain frog. He found the rain frog in the sandy dunes along Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape province (South Africa?).The frog’s animated body plan is well adapted for burrowing in its dune habitat there. (Not sure where the desert part of the name comes from, or the rain either, for that matter.)

They've got flanges on their back feet which act like little spades, so they can dig in backward into the sand. They also have a belly patch which is an area with lots of blood vessels and capillaries through which they can take up water through the soil.

The video can be found on YouTube.

Other information about the frog can be found here News24

Also see Outdoor.