Blacktip Island resident are on edge this week after reports of a dinosaur-era giant frog stalking the small Caribbean island’s pets and small children. (photo illustration by Nobu Tamura)
A large, carnivorous frog species, long thought extinct, this week attacked Blacktip Island pets and children, panicking many of the small Caribbean island’s residents.
“Blacktip used to be lousy with devil frogs,” island historian Smithson Altschul said. “They were a terror for the early settlers, eating livestock, attacking children and sliming larders. Folks killed them off back in the 1920s, and there’s been no sightings since.
“With these new reports, though, the worry is all they might be back,” Altschul said. “Devil frogs can get as big as dogs, and there’s been all kinds of cats and chickens going missing. Folks are on edge.”
Officials say the first reports of the frog were ignored.
“The initial sightings were by Dermott Bottoms and James Conlee,” Island Police Constable Rafe Marquette said. “That’s the same pair who swore they saw a platypus at the Sand Spit bar, and a mermaid off the Eagle Ray Cove dock, so we chalked it up to too much rum. It wasn’t ‘til Doris Blenny’s cats disappeared, and little Shelley Bottoms came face-to-face with a giant frog in the bushes—and took a sticky tongue to the face—that we put the pieces together.
“We’ve got hunters out, and’ll do whatever it takes to kill this thing,” Marquette said. “Gets much bigger, it’ll be a danger to adults, too. As it is, we’re telling folks to keep their small children inside for the duration.”
Island biologists hope to capture the frog alive.
“Blacktip Island’s devil frogs were a subspecies of Beelzebufo ampinga, which first appeared nearly 60 million years ago,” cryptozoologist Chrissy Graysby said. “They were apex predators whose ancestors ate small dinosaurs. The ancient Egyptians worshiped them. If there’s one, or more, alive on Blacktip, that’d be a huge discovery. Sure, and a public safety concern, blah blah blah, but a huge opportunity.
“There’s no telling how one of these survived,” Graysby said. “Our working hypothesis is there was at least one dormant egg buried in dried mud in the interior, and all the recent rain caused it to hatch. And there could be more than one.”
Some residents were critical of the official response.
“Didn’t believe me, now look where we are,” Dermott Bottoms said. “It got a bunch of cats, and tried to get a little girl. Wouldn’t’ve happened if they’d listened to me. All makes sense now—folks ain’t seen that platypus ‘cause the devil frog ate it. The mermaid, too.
“Me and James, we made us a giant frog trap, though,” Bottoms said. “Buried a big net under some sea grape leaves, tied an iguana to a stake in the middle. That ol’ frog goes after the bait, WHOOSH! Up goes the net. Even if it’s off the net, if it shoots its tongue at the iguana, the net’s fine enough to grab it by the tongue. It’s foolproof.”
The Blacktip Times 