Family shocked as tree frog jumps out from bag of supermarket bananas
A tree frog has made it all the way from the Dominican Republic on a 4,300-mile trip to the West Midlands in a bunch of bananas.
Iain Holloway and his family made the surprise discovery when they were unpacking their food shopping after a delivery at their home in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
The tiny 1.5-inch amphibian, who is now in the care of the RSPCA, was in good condition, despite being inside the bag of Fair Trade bananas for some time.
Mr Holloway said: "We were unpacking the shopping in the kitchen and my wife turned to me and said ‘look there’s a frog in the bananas’ and I said ‘sorry, there’s a what in the bananas?’.
"We then all stood in the kitchen looking at each other wondering what to do as there isn’t really a manual for these sorts of things.
"We rang the RSPCA who advised us to look at the information about frogs on their website as we didn’t know whether it was a non-native species.
"It was a complete surprise to see this little creature in our kitchen so far from home and we’ve all had a bit of a chuckle about it since."
RSPCA animal rescue officer Jonny Wood collected the frog from Tamworth on September 24, the day after the family had found him.
Jonny said: "The little frog was bright and alert and has since been feeding well.
"The Holloway family did exactly the right thing by not touching the amphibian, given the uncertainty about what sort of frog we were dealing with.
"These frogs are not dangerous or poisonous, but very common in the Dominican Republic."
Jonny is no stranger to dealing with exotic stowaways. Last year he was called to collect a toad which was discovered at Birmingham Airport after travelling from Pakistan in a suitcase.
