A tiny tree frog travelled 4,300 miles across the Atlantic before being found in a bunch of bananas in a Staffordshire market town.
Iain Holloway and his family were shocked to stumble across a stowaway while unpacking their Sainsbury’s delivery on September 24.
They made sure not to touch the 1.5-inch amphibian, fearing it could be poisonous.
But a visit from the RSPCA has since confirmed it is a harmless Hispaniolan common tree frog that took a trip to Tamworth from the Dominican Republic.
Sainsbury’s has apologised and is investigating how the frog made it to England without being noticed.
‘We were unpacking the shopping in the kitchen and my wife turned to me and said “look there’s a frog in the bananas” and I said “sorry, there’s a what in the bananas?”‘, Iain said.
‘We then all stood in the kitchen looking at each other wondering what to do as there isn’t really a manual for these sorts of things.’
‘We rang the RSPCA who advised us to look at the information about frogs on their website as we didn’t know whether it was a non-native species.
‘In the meantime, our 12-year-old son started to do a bit of research and told us he thought the markings looked like a Hispaniolan common tree frog.
‘It was a complete surprise to see this little creature in our kitchen so far from home and we’ve all had a bit of a chuckle about it since.’
Despite its mammoth journey, the frog is healthy and is being cared for by the RSPCA.
Animal rescue officer Jonny Wood said: ‘The little frog was bright and alert and has since been feeding well.
‘The Holloway family did exactly the right thing by not touching the amphibian, given the uncertainty about what sort of frog we were dealing with.
‘When I arrived at their house I could see the stowaway was in fact a Hispaniolan common frog, so Iain’s eldest son turned out to be right and it will definitely be an interesting tale for the family to retell in the future.
‘These frogs are not dangerous or poisonous and very common in the Dominican Republic.’
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told Metro.co.uk: ‘We are very sorry about this customer experience, cases like this are extremely rare because we have processes in place to prevent them from happening. We are investigating this incident with our supplier.’
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