African Clawed Frog

These are African clawed frogs.  Other names they go by are clawed frog, common platanna, and upland clawed frog.  Some people also call them clawed toads, but I don’t understand that because they aren’t really toads.  We saw them at the Milwaukee Public Museum.  They are different from other frogs because they don’t have a tongue.  They eat almost anything, but their favorites are mosquito larvae, insects, worms, and dead organic matter.  They have claws on their back feet that they use to tear apart their food.

They are originally from Africa, but they have been introduced to lots of other parts of the world, where they are causing problems.  A bunch of states in the U.S. have made it illegal to have these frogs as pets because of all the problems they cause if they escape into the wild.