Argentina: Chaco Horned Frogs
At one point during our 1000+ kilometer traverse the northern Argentina, all over a sudden the road became covered with thousand of small round black stones seemingly everywhere. And the stones were moving! These were frogs – thousands and thousands of peculiar-looking round colorful green-and-black frogs migrating across the highway – an endless wave of moving frogs! We got out of the car to photograph, but the brutal mosquitos didn’t allow us to for it for long. Upon research, the frogs were the Chaco Horned Frogs aka Chacophrys pierottii. They are endemic and found only in the border area of Paraguay and Argentina, known as Chaco. The frogs inhibit the flat shrubland and actually are not commonly seen, as adults spend most of their time underground and only come out at night to eat insects. But after the first rains, the frogs come out en masse, breed in puddles, and then are born and spread all around the grassland. And the interesting part – these frogs are highly valued in pet trade, a single frog selling for $350-400! We basically saw millions and millions of dollars jumping around us!
