Purple Frog

Communication: Cock-a-doodle who? Purple frogs don’t croak, they sound more like chickens. Just before the monsoon, you can hear males underground, squawking their hearts out as they wait to hitch a matrimonial ride…

Favourite hangout: These little guys live alone in India’s Western Ghats, more than 3,000 miles from their closest relatives in the Seychelles! They’re happiest burrowed in loose, damp soil, feasting on ants and termites.

Love language: Once a year, when they feel the urge, females grab their man and carry him on their backs to their watery breeding ground. There, using their hindlegs, these masculine love objects ‘push’ literally thousands of eggs out of their beloved, before fertilising them. How’s that for intimate contact on your first date?!

If you see one: You might be surprised. Purple frogs have small white snouts, small eyes, short limbs with hard palms for digging, glossy grey-to-purple skin, and bloated bodies - a bit like shell-less turtles! They’re rarely glimpsed, even by people who’ve studied them for years. 

Pet peeves: Changing weather patterns that mess with the monsoon and disrupt their once-a-year romantic adventure. Plus dams and anything else that destroys their lovely wet, woody homes.

Growth: Tadpoles emerge into fast-flowing streams roughly seven days after eggs have been fertilised. They grab onto rocks with their powerful sucker mouths and take about 100 days to turn into tiny frogs. Then they disappear underground.