Romeo, The World’s Loneliest Frog, May Be Getting a Girlfriend
(Link): Romeo, The World’s Loneliest Frog, May Be Getting a Girlfriend
Excerpts:
by Lynn Franco
Jan 2019
He’s spent 10 years alone. Now Romeo, the world’s loneliest frog, may have finally found a Juliet that can save his species
Scientists have found a potential mate for Romeo, the Sehuencas water frog who’s been alone and single for the last 10 years. Housed in a museum in Bolivia, Romeo was considered possibly the last living water frog of his kind.
The big-eyed amphibian won hearts worldwide last year after conservationists created a playful Match .com profile for him.
Now Romeo and his love interest — who scientists have named Juliet, of course — will be set up on a blind date this Valentine’s Day as part of an effort to save their species.
No pressure, kids.
It all started when Bolivia’s Alcide d’Orbigny Natural History Museum partnered with Global Wildlife Conservation to raise money to search for a mate for Romeo.
Zoologist Teresa Camacho then led a frog-search expedition last month through Bolivia’s cloud forest. She and her team would stick their hands in creeks and feel for water frogs, since the creatures can’t easily be spotted where they live — underwater.
[The researchers found a female frog by a waterfall]
…Juliet is at the perfect age for reproduction. The others are younger and not ready yet.
She’s also … pretty cute.
“She has beautiful eyes,” Alcide d’Orbigny Museum Director Ricardo Céspedes says about Juliet, who is quarantined until lab tests come back. Scientists need to make sure she’s free of the dangerous chytrid fungus, known to have killed entire frog populations, before she meets Romeo.
But Romeo and Juliet may not even be compatible.
…”We’re hoping opposites attract,” says Céspedes, noting Romeo is shy, doesn’t swim much and is “a little overweight.”
Juliet, on the other hand, is extroverted and full of energy — she’s already tried to escape her tank.
“We’ll have to provide some sort of current to get him a little more exercise,” Camacho says.
Related:
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(Link): Love Is Patient: Rare Snail Finally Meets Mate Willing to Accept His Differences
(Link): Female Cockroaches Form Squads to Block Male Mating Attempts
(Link): Female Dragonflies Are Pretending to Die in Order to Avoid Irritating Males
(Link): Duck Seeking Duck: Man Posts Duck Wanted Ad For His Widowed Pet Duck
(Link): ‘Why Are You Single’ Lists That Do Not Pathologize Singles by Bella DePaulo
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