Aquarium Welcomes New Visitors

Aquarist Emma Burdon welcomes the latest addition to Hull’s tourist attraction The Deep – a White’s tree frog from Australia

Green and plump with large toes and a fondness for crickets, the visitor was being introduced to his new surroundings yesterday before going on display to the public on Saturday.

Also arriving from Chester Zoo were two frogs belonging to a species with a much less benign reputation, the Golden Poison Arrow. They have the potential to be the most poisonous animal on the planet, hence their other name, “terriblis”.

But visitors to The Deep should not be alarmed – the frogs were bred in captivity and have therefore eaten none of the insects which make them poisonous in the wild.

The animals’ arrival coincides with the Year of the Frog campaign, launched by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums to highlight the plight of amphibians.

About half the species – about 3,000 – are threatened with extinction through habitat loss, disease, climate change, pollution, or introduced species.

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