i bestow upon you this frog. it will guard thee against The Loneliness™️. his name is toby.
OMGGGG TYSM I LOVE HIM SM!! I WILL CHERISH HIM ALWAYS!!
Anyways did some research (bcs ofc i did) and I think this picture is actually altered! I did a reverse image search and it looks like this picture has floated around the internet for years, with several people claiming it to be various species of frogs.
I knew from just looking at the shape of his head and eyes that he was a tree frog, but i didnt recognize him… so naturally i had to find out what species he is.
His coloration isnt impossible for frogs, of course- the poison dart frog has a morph similar to this, as does the white’s tree frog!
HOWEVER! If you look at them closely… their head and eye shape isnt quite the same.
This guy’s head and eye shape most closely resembles that of a Morelet’s tree frog… the resemblance is uncanny actually!
But… the Morelet’s tree frog is always bright green, it doesnt have a blue morph. So- I wondered, could this be another tree frog?
I focused on the genus “agalychnis”, since that’s the genus the Morelet’s is part of…but none of the 14 frogs in that genus have that much blue.
I then looked at the leptopelus genus, because they have some blue frogs with similar eyes (ie the big eyed tree frog).
This genus was a bit harder to go through because theres 54 recognized species…
I looked through all 54 and determined none of them match this frog…
Anyways. I think the photo must be altered because besides this image, I couldn’t find any similar bright, fully blue tree frogs! It is possible- many frogs are blue due to a genetic mutation, as this article notes: “There are a few species of frogs in which individuals normally are blue. The most well-known of these is probably the Blue Poison Frog (also called the Dyeing Poison Frog; Dendrobates tinctorius), a highly toxic species from Suriname, in which the blue color has been presumed to function as a warning to potential predators of the frog’s toxicity,” says Dr. Sharyn Marks, HSU biology professor and herpetologist.”
Still, I think it’s more likely that this photo is an altered photo of a Morelet’s tree frog. It’s a common frog so it’s hard to find the original, but that’s likely the case.
Anyways! I know literally no one cares, but! I had fun researching this, regardless.
Thank you for the cute frog, even if he’s edited hehe! He still has a precious smile.