Leptodactylus fallax
This unusually named and critically endangered frog is on the brink of extinction. It is one of the world’s largest frogs, sometimes weighing over a kilogram.
With powerful back legs, it can leap over a man’s head! However, it is primarily crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), spending the day resting in burrows or under logs and hunting for food at twilight.
Its diet includes insects, snails, spiders, centipedes, smaller frogs, geckoes, and even snakes. Known for its meat that reportedly tastes like chicken, it was once widely hunted as a food source on several Caribbean islands. Unfortunately, numbers have declined drastically due to hunting, habitat loss, the introduction of invasive predators, and the spread of a fungal disease called Chytridiomycosis, which has wiped out entire populations across multiple islands.
Today, only a small number of these frogs remain on two islands, Dominica and Montserrat, where hunting them is now illegal.
We are working in collaboration with other zoos to help save this critically endangered species through an international breeding programme, which could eventually lead to successful reintroductions into the wild.