Vampire Flying Frog

A new species of frog was discovered in 2008 by an Australian scientists – Dr Jodi Rowley.  This is not just a normal creature either. Cover your necks everyone – they’ve discovered the Vampire Flying Frog!

The Vampire Flying Frog (Rhacophorus vampyrus) was discovered in Vietnam, and it is said that the upper part of the trees in the Vietnam cloud forest are the only place that you can find this creature. It has been called a “flying frog” because of its webbed fingers and toes which allow it to glide between the trees similar to flying.  (For anyone familiar with the flying squirrel, the concept is very similar).

The “vampire” part of the flying frog name came about because of the black fangs which you can find on the underside of the tadpole’s mouths.  (Yes, I said BLACK FANGS!!  😉  )  Actually, the scientists say the “fangs” are more like black “hooks”. So far, researchers are not certain what purpose the black fangs serve although there are some theories that have been thrown around including that possibly the vampire flying frog tadpole uses the fangs to stab unfertilized eggs, or perhaps anchor itself in place.

Luckily, so far there has been no connection found between the vampire flying frog and a desire to drink blood. So for everyone out there thinking about visiting the Vietnamese cloud forest, no need to worry about bloodsucking frogs…even if they do have fangs! 🙂