A frog species that changes color every spring turned blue for the first time in the United Kingdom after 700 years, just in time for the mating season. The male moor frog is widespread across Europe, and turning blue is their way to impress their potential mate.
Two teens from Staffordshire made history by creating a breeding enclosure for the blue moor frog in a bath, GNews reported. Harvey Tweats and Tom Whitehurst played sounds of other male moor frogs to think that it was surrounded by rivals which made it turn blue.
The First Blue Moor Frog in Britain in 700 Years
According to MailOnline, Tweats and Whitehurst own a breeding company known as Celtic Reptile and Amphibian. The two teenagers believe that this is the first time a color change happened in the UK after seven centuries.
"It's the first time one's gone fully blue in Britain for 700 years," they confidently declared.
Ben Goldsmith, a board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the one who funded the duo's project, said that the process of restoring the long-lost wetlands in the length and breadth of Britain would be great to adorn with these blue moor frogs.
Goldsmith is a well-known rewilding enthusiast but was smeared with the controversy of releasing a red deer and wild boar in a farm in Somerset, which damaged their neighbors' land.
Later, environment secretary George Eustice acknowledged the 39-year-old financier had made a mistake in breaching the rules for releasing animals in the wild.
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Color Changing Moor Frogs Turn Blue For Spring
According to The Ark in Space, the moor frog is a small frog that could grow up to seven centimeters in length. Typically they are reddish-brown but changes once a year during spring between March and June. But only male moor frogs turn blue.
The male blue moor frog emerges after their winter hibernation and naturally turns their thinking to propagating their species.
They are commonly found in Central and Southern Europe's lowlands, where their sounds could be heard, which sounds like the noise that a bottle being held underwater as the air escapes.
There are hundreds or even thousands of moor frogs that live in a single pond. Their color blue also identifies that they are males, allowing them to immediately identify the opposite gender.
In an enormous group of ponds found in southwestern Poland known as Milicz ponds, moor frogs can be found in great numbers, and in each pond, the frogs can be heard calling for their potential mates.
However, although males and females have different colors, these frogs do not always get it right when mating, like what the video below shows.
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