Photo by Brian Curry, Rutgers University.
Most folks assume Staten Island holds little more than Italian restaurants, mob wives, and a huge landfill. But another resident has just been discovered on New York City’s most disrespected borough: a new species of frog!
Scientists recently discovered a new species of leopard frog on Staten Island. The hopper went unnoticed for so long because it looks more or less exactly like another type of leopard frog — it just sounds different. And, ya know, because the science community is more used to finding undiscovered wildlife in remote, pristine places, rather than urban metropolises. (The center of this new frog’s range? Yankee Stadium.)
We know what you’re thinking: If this leopard frog was discovered in Staten Island, it may not be a new species at all, but rather some mutant amphibian that crawled out of the sewer. But apparently there’s been speculation about “odd frogs” in the area since the 1800s, and researchers say they’ve also spotted the new leopard frog in parts of New Jersey and counties north of NYC. I guess, like so many New Yorkers, the frogs got tired of the city grind and hopped on out to the suburbs.
