Sometimes, the animal kingdom does some very…. strange things. In order to survive in the wild creatures have to adapt or face extinction. The Hairy Frog did just that. It may not be the most attractive creature, but that’s kind of good for us. If you get too close to these amphibians you’ll likely come home looking like you were mauled by a cat. You see, the fact that makes this animal interesting is not its hair but rather its retractable claws.
[photo: via Nerdist]
This feline-frog creature thing actually will break its own fingers when it feels it has to defend itself. After breaking its fingers, they actually puncture its skin and then act as the claws I mentioned. Being an amphibian, scientists think that it is likely that these wounds heal relatively fast in the water but unfortunately there is no definite answer yet as it has never been observed. It’s a weird animal but definitely something interesting to know about.
As a side note, this frog is actually a delicacy in Cameroon. Yes, delicacy, like people eat this. In order to catch these hand sized frogs, the villagers will actually use long spears and machetes to avoid being hurt by the hairy frog’s claws. Frog legs anyone?
[photo: Xin Mei via Flickr]
Talk about strange adaptions, eh? Leap this way again soon for some more awesome!
[via: New Scientist, Web Ecoist, and Nerdist)
[cover photo: David Blackburn via Harvard]
Strange Adaptions 