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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, July 3, 2002

Illegal frog found at Kaiser High is carnivorous, voracious eater

An illegal African Clawed Frog was found on the campus of Kaiser High School last week and turned in to the Department of Agriculture The frog is thought to be a young adult. The African Clawed Frog, named for the claws on its hind legs, is carnivorous and a voracious eater that will consume almost anything that fits in its mouth.

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

A meat-eating African Clawed Frog, which devours anything that will fit in its mouth, was found recently at Kaiser High School.

The frog was found in a plastic jar Friday morning on the steps of the administration building by a vice principal. A note on the container said the frog was not from Hawai'i and the owner did not want to release it into the wild.

School officials turned over the 5-inch frog to the Department of Agriculture, which identified it as an African Clawed Frog. The grayish frog is native to the sub-Sahara desert in Africa and gets its name because of claws on its hind legs that are used to tear food and burrow in mud.

The frog found at Kaiser was a young adult that could grow up to about six inches. African Clawed Frogs can live up to 10 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity, said Department of Agriculture land vertebrates specialist Lisa Nakayama.

The frog poses no danger to humans, but because of its voracious appetite, it could harm native species, Nakayama said. African clawed frogs have wide mouths and feed on fish, worms, insects, decaying biota, and even other frogs and small birds.

A female African Clawed Frog can lay up to 2,000 eggs, which hatch in three days. After the fifth day, tadpoles will begin to feed, Nakayama said.

"The thing I want to stress about this particular animal is do not release it in the wild," Nakayama said. "They really will eat everything that they can get into their mouths — dead, alive, rotting."

Anyone with information on illegal animals can call the Department of Agriculture's pest hot line at 586-PEST (7378).