Where Does the Pinocchio Frog Eat?

The amusing moniker "Pinocchio frog" is not without purpose. The males of these frogs have a highly distinctive physical appearance. Their long snouts are reminiscent of those of the famed character. When they vocalize, their noses tip up. When they're silent, their noses look down. If a male Pinocchio frog's nose is looking down, then he's probably in a calm mood, rather than an animated one. The exact reason for these frogs' unusually lengthy snouts is not certain.

Pinocchio frogs are thought to possibly be part of the Litoria prominia species -- members of the family Hylidae. Family Hylidae frogs generally feed on insects. These frogs spend their time at elevations of between roughly 984 and 3,937 feet. They live and eat close to the ponds and tiny bodies of water of the rain forest. When it comes time to reproduce, they generally move to marshes. They sometimes even reproduce in trenches. When a herpetologist first saw a Pinocchio frog in 2008, the little guy was relaxing over a sack that contained rice.

Pinocchio frogs reside in the far off Foja Mountains of Indonesia. These mountains are situated on Papua, which is a province on New Guinea -- a sizable island. The Foja Mountains exceed elevations of 7,000 feet, with no fewer than 1,160 square miles in land, specifically of untarnished rain forest. Pinocchio frogs weren't the only unfamiliar new species recently found breathing and eating within the mountains. Various new varieties of birds, reptiles, mammals and bugs were seen, as well. The Foja Mountains are often surrounded in haze. Its many trees are frequently adorned both in massive ferns and moss.

Some of the specific creatures that share homes in the Foja Mountains with Pinocchio frogs include a miniscule type of wallaby and a new kind of bent-toed gecko, complete with bright yellow eyes. A sizable woolly rat was also seen. Since getting to the upper portions of the Foja Mountains is so difficult, many of its resident animals have been able to develop, over a lot of time, in complete privacy away from prying human eyes.