Our animals
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African clawed frog
Six-banded Distichodus
Congo tetra
Ansorge's cichlid
Butterfly fish
Snow Pleco
Sierra leone dwarf tetra
African clawed frog
Facts
| Latin | Xenopus laevis |
| Size | 13 cm |
| Food | Bottom-living animals, insects and small crustaceans |
| Habitat | Stagnant ponds and in streams |
| IUCN | Least concern |
| Location | Naturally from southern Africa. but now also California, Chile, Great Britain |
| Map |  |
A life under water
Almost all frogs live both on land and in water, with the exception of the clawed frog, which always only lives in water. In order to do this, it has very large webbed feet and a fat stomach filled with air that keeps it weightless in water.
A scavenger
The clawed frog eats almost anything it finds, both dead and living animals. It has no teeth to bite with, so it uses the claws on its back feet to tear its prey to pieces.
A friend to science
The African clawed frog was the first vertebrate to be cloned and it even has the ability to produce the substance magainin, which kills bacteria, parasites, fungus and virus. This is a substance scientists are eager to copy.
Pregnancy test
In the 1930s, the clawed frog was used as a living pregnancy test in many hospitals. When the female frog was injected with the urine of a pregnant woman, she would react to the hormones by laying eggs within 24 hours. Luckily for the frogs, this pregnancy test was replaced by more modern methods in the 60s.
Carriers of disease
Clawed frogs come from Africa, but have been popular laboratory animals and thus have spread to almost all corners of the world. Unfortunately, the clawed frog has brought a dangerous fungal disease with it, which has wiped out many other species of frog.