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News & ArtsSunday, January 18, 2009
At Large / Wilderness The Mummified Frogs of Baltimore County
Posted by Anthony Hecht on Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 9:55 PM
I'm in Baltimore visiting family and heading to the inauguration, and my aunt is visiting from Florida as well. Packing for her return trip, she found this... this... thing among her clothes.
Clearly, it's a long-dead frog, right? But man, it's been dead a really long time. And why is it so perfectly poised? The legs are all tucked up underneath, like it's been ritually mummified.
I wanted to take it to a scientist or send it to Golob in the mail with no return address, but my family was more keen to throw it away, and so they did.
2
This definitely should have been put in the mail. And I'm with #1, why is there so much hair on it??
3
Anthony, I am surprised you've never seen this before. Dehydrated frogs are fairly common. They do not take very long to dry, so this specimen is probably not very old. It is so perfectly poised because is died in her suitcase, not hopping around, perhaps in the coldness of the airplane's luggage compartment. Poor little guy, he deserved to pass on in a more dignified space.
5
I used to spend a lot of time in a very old ceramics studio next to a golf course with lots of ponds. We had quite the collection of dessicated frogs as they would slumber next to the kilns and dry out overnight. They were lovingly named and pinned to the walls.
6
I think this frog was dried in Anthony's aunt's vagina which would explain the pubic hair stuck to it.
7
Maybe dried out frogs tend to pick up lint and hair.
If I found this in my suitcase I think I'd cry.
If I found this in my suitcase I think I'd cry.
8
I once awoke to the sound of a mummified lizard falling from wherever it had died inside the housing of a box fan into the blades of the fan, which was of course aimed toward the bed. Dried lizard everywhere. That's Florida.
Poor little frog.
Poor little frog.
9
frogs dehydrate easily, it's hot and seasonally dry in Florida. why is this a mystery exactly? little critters (big ones too) die all the time. we're bound to find 'em sometimes.
I'd be psyched to find a mummy frog, but maybe that's just me.
I'd be psyched to find a mummy frog, but maybe that's just me.
10
When i was a kid in SC, we would find frogs flattened by cars that had then dried to a crisp. You could pick them up and fling 'em like a frisbee down the block.
Good times, good times.
Good times, good times.
13
uggh...that pic is totally disgusting! I think if I found that I would have puked! As it is, I think I will probably have nightmares from the image!!! aaaaahhhhhh!!!
15
I wonder if her suitcase or house had recently been fumigated - after grass and edgelands have been sprayed (with chems that affect nervous system and hydration mechanisms) frogs dry up and hop abit but not far...the inauguration was at Mar Memorial Plaza which I attended, in the afternoon, at 20 DF - so it is unlikely that spraying occurred outside - return it home Auntie!
16
I have a mummy frog sitting on my desk right now. I live in Florida, and find them everywhere. I pick them up and they become my friends. I love my little guys, and they never leave me :)
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