adventures in china

So when I was maybe 9 years old or so I bought a “chubby frog” from Aquarius pet store in Monona. This thing was cool. He sat in a little mud hole all day long, popping out to snag any small insect I threw into his 10 gallon aquarium. One night I woke up to a scream. My chubby frog had escaped, climbed out of his covered cage, under my room door, down the stairs, over carpeted floors, and ended up in my parents bedroom (mom, do you remember this?) He died some years later, but I was always impressed that this seemingly inactive brown blob made it through our entire house in one night.

Now I see them everyday. They’re everywhere, and they don’t just sit in little mud holes. I’ve found them in trees, swimming in water, on plant leaves a meter off the ground, and also in the mud. Here is one I found on a path in the rainforest the other week -

and a few other Microhylids, pretty much miniature versions of the above.