Hmmmmmmmm . . . Weird!

I never saw a purple cow.

I never hope to see one.

But I can tell you anyhow,

I'd rather see than be one!

This new species of frog brought this childhood rhyme to mind when I saw the picture above. It's not only purple, its markings are flourescent, or what we used to we used to call dayglo, purple! Weird, huh? I've named him Grenouille which is French for 'frog' but let's call him Grenny for short. He was discovered in eastern Suriname by an expedition sponsored by a couple aluminum companies hoping to find bauxite probably because we don't have enough cans to recycle.

The expedition was conducted by a U.S. non-profit, Conservation International, in the swamps and rain forests of Surinam and, in addition to Grenny, they discovered a snail-eating snake, six types of fish; one new ant species, and 12 types of dung beetles. Like the world needed more dung beetles. The last will probably immigrate here and run for Congress. The snail-eating snake fascinates me & I wonder if he likes them with garlic butter like I do.

Grenny is really not a frog as the media has called him. He is an atelopus or harlequin toad and there used to be many species of them. According to my research, in Ecuador they have formed Operation Atelopus so now we're going to save the toads in addition to the whales, etc.

Upon their discoveries, the expedition's scientists called upon the Surinamese government to institute better conservation measures and clamp down on illegal hunting and mining in the rain forests.

As to Grenny, he's pretty but I couldn't find anything out about his personality or lifestyle except that he burrows which leads me to believe that he isn't interested in a career in show biz. Kermit is probably breathing a sigh of relief.

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kay