The Little Giants

"Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison."

 

- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

 

On the pet trade, in which it is not uncommonly found, the African bullfrog is sometimes called the pixie frog.  This is largely done as a short-hand for its scientific name, Pyxicephalus adspersus.  It also has an ironic second-meaning.  It's hard to imagine any animal looking less like a pixie than a squat, football-sized frog that will readily devour members of its own species.

 

The pixie isn't even the largest frog or toad in the world.  That honor belongs to the goliath frog of Cameroon, which is the size of an admittedly very small dog.  I've never seen a live one in the flesh - the species has a reputation of being easily stressed and does poorly under human care (though you can read all about an expedition to capture these massive amphibians and bring them back to the Bronx Zoo in You Belong In A  Zoo! by Peter Brazaitis).  I remember seeing my first pictures of one when I was in elementary school - the frog in the photo was a stuffed museum specimen that was stuffing itself even further with a stuffed rat.  It made quite an impression on a kid who spent many of his weekend hours trying to catch far smaller frogs out of the ditch in the backyard.

 

 

A frog the size of a dog seems unreal... until you realize that there are spiders with leg-spans that would overflow a full-sized dinner plate.  There are snails the size of your head, and millipedes the size of hotdogs, and crickets the size of mice.  All of that is ignoring my favorite giant, a salamander the size of a toddler.

 

There are few things more disconcerting than something that is *supposed to be* very small unexpectedly being very, very big.  I can't even think of an accurate natural reverse scenario.  Imagine an adult elephant small enough to put up in your arms.  That's how unreal these animals seem to me.  Granted, if an elephant that small actually existed, an African bullfrog would probably try to eat it, possibly choking in the process.

 

I've never seen a goliath frog in a zoo, nor do I expect to any time soon (though I've been wrong before - I certainly never expected to see Titicaca water frogs in American zoos, and yet I have twice in the last year).  I have, however, seen plenty of African bullfrogs, along with giant salamanders, giant millipedes, and goliath bird-eating spiders, along with a host of other "small giants," and they are awesome to behold in real life.  Some of them I've even gotten to handle directly. 

 

These creatures, especially when displayed alongside their smaller, more conventional relatives, can be a great addition to any educational facility.  It's important to present them not as freaks kept for shock-value, but as unique, special creatures, each highlighting the variety and diversity of the natural world, and each serving as a reminder of how important it is to protect that variety and biodiversity.