This tiny frog’s “mighty war cry” is intended to ward off predators and attract mates, reports GrindTV, but it’s probably just going to make you say “awww.”

Although it’s been widely identified in the news as a Namaqua rain frog, frog expert (unfortunate professional title: herpetologist) Alan Channing has identified it as a desert rain frog.

I’m pretty sure Mr. Channing knows what he’s talking about, as he’s actually one of the assessors list on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), which lists the desert rain frog, or Breviceps macrops, as “vulnerable” on its Red List of Threatened Species.

The Pokemon-like sound is also emitted when the frog is in distress, said Mr. Channing, who is a professor and has authored three books on African frogs.

“What this means is that somebody was prodding it and annoying it while the close-up video was taken,” he said.


Dang it, now I’m saying “awww” because I’m sad for the squeaky little guy.

Wildlife photographer Dean Boshoff, who filmed the squeaky frog, said it was already making that sound, and that’s how he noticed it.


“I recorded a short clip of the defensive cry of the Desert rain frog – Breviceps macrops,” Mr. Boshoff wrote in the video’s caption on YouTube. “While walking along the sand dunes in Port Nolloth, a coastal town in the Northern Cape province, it alerted me to its presence with its fearsome war cry. I knelt down and proceeded to photograph and film this unusual creature’s behaviour.”
Source