The furious little frog that squeaks and never sees a pond
This might be the angriest animal on Earth, and it is roughly the size of a plum.
Which one is REALLY true about the Desert Rain Frog?
The short version
The desert rain frog lives on a narrow strip of sand dunes between Namibia and South Africa. Disturbed, it does not croak — it squeaks a high-pitched war cry. There is no standing water where it lives, so it skips the tadpole stage entirely and survives on sea fog rolling off the Atlantic.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Desert Rain Frog squeaks a high-pitched, furious little war cry instead of croaking when something disturbs it.
- ✓The Desert Rain Frog lives on one narrow strip of sand dunes between Namibia and South Africa.
- ✓The Desert Rain Frog skips the tadpole stage completely, so its young develop straight into tiny frogs underground.
- ✓The Desert Rain Frog survives almost entirely on sea fog rolling in off the Atlantic, because there is no standing water where it lives.
- ✓The Desert Rain Frog is round, roughly the size of a plum, and faintly underneath.
You could line up about 24 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
This might be the angriest animal on Earth, and it is roughly the size of a plum. Meet the desert rain frog, which lives on one narrow strip of sand dunes between Namibia and South Africa. It is round, faintly translucent, permanently unimpressed, and when something disturbs it, it does not croak at all. It squeaks. A high-pitched, almost furious little war cry. That sound made it famous online, but the frog itself is genuinely strange. It never goes near a pond. There is no standing water where it lives, so it skips the tadpole stage entirely, and the young develop straight into tiny frogs underground. It survives almost entirely on sea fog rolling in off the Atlantic. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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Desert Rain Frog gallery
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“The Desert Rain Frog squeaks a high-pitched, furious little war cry instead of croaking when something disturbs it.”
“The Desert Rain Frog has several dramatically elongated ribs along each side that swing outward to stretch wing-like flaps of skin.”
“The Desert Rain Frog lives on one narrow strip of sand dunes between Namibia and South Africa.”