ZooWeird 62

A doggerel series about odd or little-known animals.

Paradoxical Frog.  The species begins its life like most frogs do, as a tadpole—a big tadpole that is up to 25cm long. But then something weird happens. It morphs into an actual frog that is only about a quarter of its former length! Not surprisingly, the species became known as the shrinking frog. The paradoxical frog is an aquatic species that inhabits ponds, lakes, and lagoons from northern Argentina, through the Pantanal, Amazon, and the Guianas, to Venezuela and Trinidad with a disjunct distribution in the Magdalena River watershed in Colombia and adjacent far western Venezuela. (All animal ino from http://www.strangeanimals.info/2014/12/the-paradoxical-shrinking-frog.html#ixzz4X6AEMvbE)

A tadpole bigger than the frog

That from this tadpole did ensue?

A twig that's larger than the log

It came from? Mystery for you!

There have been times throughout my life

When I was carrying too much weight

And would have liked (so would my wife?)

To be a smaller guy—but Fate

Declares we aren’t amphibian.

So we grow larger—sometimes thick—

And try all remedies we can

To lose—an often tricky trick.

That frog must look at us, amazed.

And think we’re weird beyond belief.

While we examine him—so dazed—

And seek in diet our relief.