Romeo the Sehuencas water frogDIRK ERCKEN AND ARTURO MUÑOZ
After a decade of the single life, Romeo the Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare) is putting it all on the line to find a mate. Or, more precisely, researchers at Global Wildlife Conservation are putting Romeo online. Arturo Muñoz-Saravia, a conservation scientist at Global Wildlife Conservation, set up a Match.com profile for the amphibian as part of a campaign to raise $15,000.
“Well, hi there,” the profile reads. “I’m Romeo. I’m a Sehuencas (pronounced “say-when-cuss”) water frog and, not to start this off super heavy or anything, but I’m literally the last of my species [researchers have not encountered a Sehuencas water frog in the wild since 2008].” A video of Romeo, complete with an accented voice-over, accompanies the profile.
Romeo lives at the Cochabamba Natural History Museum in Bolivia. Sehuencas water frogs typically live for...
“We don't want him to lose hope,” Arturo Munoz tells AFP news agency. “We continue to remain hopeful that others are out there so we can establish a conservation breeding program to save this species.”
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