Having unwittingly sown some confusion, I must try to dispel
it. First, there is a kind of lizard that in 1993 became the ‘State
Reptile’ of Texas under the name of ‘Texas Horned Lizard’. “Most older
Texans [according to one website] have had, at one time or another, a horny
toad for a pet. ... In the fifties and early sixties, every tourist trap on
every Texas highway sold horny toads as souvenirs ... “ This
popularity led to a sharp decline in numbers, so it is now an endangered species
no longer allowed to be kept as a pet.
Meanwhile Texas Christian University adopted the lizard as
its sporting mascot, under the name of ‘Horned Frog’, thus:
That is why TCU students shout ‘Go Frogs!’ as they wave
their lizard banners. One can imagine a wince of pain on the anguished
face of the Professor of Biology as he hears this trumpeted heresy. Oh
well, it’s probably the fault of their education policy. They should have
relaxed their rules against the teaching of evolution.
Enough of Texas and Texas Christians and their
lizards. I should never have mentioned them and I have taken you far
outside the prescribed scope of this chatline. I am certainly not going
to address Shaun’s Longhorns.
The Horned Frog of South America is a completely different
animal. Shaun has indicated where information on it can be found.
This is the chap that seems to have got into the Fyshwick Sewage Ponds.
It has a fierce locking bite:
I do not have the energy to pursue the Gerald Durrell connection,
beyond noting that a brief mini-google has brought to light that an African
Hairy Frog, to finger just one amphibian, once caused him serious inconvenience
and that a ‘Horned Toad’ features in The Drunken Forest although in what
capacity I am unable to tell you as I no longer have that particular book.
