[Image]
We've seen the purple frog of India a couple of times before (here and here). But I have to say, I looked at those pictures and thought, something has to be wrong. Frogs are usually cute, or even pretty. Even toads have a kind of lumpy aesthetic appeal. Surely the photographers caught those frogs at an awkward angle, or a bad moment.

But if there was ever a glamour shot of this species, this has to be it, and there is no denying its majestic hideousness. It is appalling in all its proportions. It even looks like it would feel nasty, and I'm speaking as someone who has picked up frogs hundreds of times in the course of a career.

This frog was only discovered by scientists in 2003. It was overlooked because your only chance to see it is two weeks of the year in the monsoon season. The rest of the time, it hides underground. Poor thing, now I understand why.

Sympathetically,
Wombat (No Relation)

(Picture from a rather odd slideshow of ugly animals at news.com.au. What's ugly about pygmy marmosets???)