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 (3.8cm) amphibian, who is now in the care of the RSPCA, was in good condition, despite being inside the bag of bananas which would have been wrapped up 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. In the meantime, our 12-year-old son started to do a bit of research and told us he thought the markings looked like an Hispaniolan common tree frog.

“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 24 September, 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.

“When I arrived at their house, I could see that the stowaway was in fact a Hispaniolan common frog, so Iain’s eldest son turned out to be right and it will definately be an interesting tale for the family to retell in the future. 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.