Colour changing frog worshipped as god in India

A frog that constantly changes colour is being worshipped as a god in India.

Published: 7:00AM BST 08 Jun 2009

The creature was discovered in a flower bed and now draws hundreds of followers to the home where it is kept in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Now one of India's top zoologists has decided he will study the unusual creature – provided it can be kept alive.

Reji Kumar, 35, a lift worker, said he is doing its best but the frog has lost its appetite.

"My one problem is that this frog does not appear to eat. I keep trying to feed it but it doesn't eat anything. I don't know what else to give it," he said.

He said the frog was white when he first spotted it but it soon changed to yellow and then grey by the time he got it home.

"By night the frog was dark yellow, and then it became transparent so you could see its internal organs," he said.

"It seemed like a miracle to me that this frog had so many different coats. So now people come to see him and pray to him."

Professor Oommen V. Oommen from India's Kerala University, said animals changing colour was not unusual in itself.

"Frogs do change colour to scare away predators," he told the Sun newspaper.

"But from what I have heard, the frog at Kumar's place changes colour so frequently it is a bit unusual. I will collect it for study."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5472658/Colour-changing-frog-worshipped-as-god-in-India.html