That Steve is uncanny.
Correct on all counts, and Denis got the half-point. This ex-tadpole has
teeth and can swallow a grown rat, even if Gerald Durrell was a shade large.
Whether for that reason or not, it is the emblem of Texas Christian University.
This worrying development is
enough to make me spend a few keystrokes on a letter to the Canberra Times.
What are our animal quarantine laws for if these chaps can just hop into a
sewage pond in the nation’s capital and grab ducks at will?
From: Steve Holliday
[
Sent: Monday, 14 December 2009 8:14 AM
To: 'Geoffrey Dabb'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Wotsit
Blue-billed Duck? And
a Horned Frog (Ceratophrys sp) from Sth America – I seem to recollect
Gerald Durrell being bitten by one of these in one of his books on his animal
collecting days. From memory, it hurt a lot! Sadly, we had no such luck when we
were in Sth America.
Steve
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Sunday, 13 December 2009 10:30 AM
To: ; Alastair Smith
Subject: [canberrabirds] Wotsit
Over several years, speculation has continued about the
periodic disappearance of ducks from some Canberra ponds. Some experts
attribute this to an aquatic creature referred to for want of a better label as
‘the Duck-grabbing Frog’. ( It should be mentioned that there are
others, called by some ‘Duck-grabbing Frog deniers’, who do not
share this theory.) Now this unusual photograph provides convincing
evidence to support the position of those who have believed in the frog.
To help the Canberra Times Environmental Reporter produce an
accurate story can anyone name the frog and duck species shown here?
