1: African Clawed Frog

Hello friends,

I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. Before we start with today’s animal, I want to emphasize that biological classification as understood by western society has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.

Today’s animal is the very first one listed on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Species Profile page: the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).

I read the name and immediately knew there was a story here. No members of this species are known to live in Colorado at this time, but Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) are actively trying to prevent them from coming in on boats. They will eat the young of native frogs.

They are native to the Rift Valley and surrounding southern and eastern African countries. They like warm, stagnant ponds, and thrive in temperatures between 60 and 80 F. They are almost entirely aquatic, only leaving one warm, stagnant pond if forced to migrate to another. They are highly adaptable and don’t mind moving into places where habitats have been disturbed by human activity. In their native range, they are ubiquitous.

Their journey to the United States was an interesting one. I’ll let the Columbia University Introduced Species Summary Project explain: “The African clawed frog was shipped around the world in the 1940's and 1950's for use in human pregnancy tests after it was discovered that female African clawed frogs begin laying eggs when injected with a pregnant women’s urine. To supply the high demand for African clawed frogs in pregnancy assays, techniques were developed to breed and rear large numbers of African clawed frogs in captivity… The frogs were intentionally released from laboratories around the world when new technologies for pregnancy diagnosis were developed in the late 1950's.”

African clawed frogs need better photographers, because Google image search is not yielding anything flattering – or fully in focus. Here’s an albino one: