It is so amusing that this story sounds a lot like a movie. Perhaps, you may have watched the favorite animation Rio, which follows the story of a pair of rare birds that have to mate because they are the last of their kind in the world.
Well, this is the tale of a pair of frogs named Romeo and Juliet.
The difference is that it is fully grounded in reality. Romeo is one very lonely Bolivian frog.
He has been living in a museum aquarium at the K’ayra Center of the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny, in Cochabamba City, for ten years because his kind is at the brink of total extinction.
In over a decade, scientists had searched tfor others speciments to no avail, and the Seheuncas water frog in museum remained the only one of its kind researchers had come across.
Thus, the poor frog has been lonely for a very long time.
However, love shone on him on 14th February 2018 when an account on the dating site Match.com was opened for him.
Through donations facilitated by the dating company, $25,000 was raised to sponsor expeditions that might lead to finding a mate for Romeo. And it worked!
According to an article on the Global Wildlife Conservation website, which partnered with the museum for the expedition at one of the Bolivian forests, five Seheuncas water frogs have been found to begin a conservation breeding programme.
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However, of all the frogs that were discovered, only one is old enough to reproduce, and of course, she was named Juliet.
The scientists are all enthusiastic about the match and hope that the two can hit it off soon. However, they are concerned that they have different temperaments.
While Romeo is shy and slightly overweight, Juliet is outgoing and energetic.
Nevertheless, a backup plan has already been worked out - in vitro fertilization, using one of the younger female frogs.
Meanwhile, Teresa Camacho Badani, the museum chief of herpetology and leader of the fruitful expedition, noted:
“Now the real work begins—we know how to successfully care for this species in captivity, but now we will learn about its reproduction, while also getting back into the field to better understand if any more frogs may be left and if so, how many, where they are, and more about the threats they face.”
We hope that as the birds in Rio, these two can start a happy family together. It would be like fiction coming to life!
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