Desert Tree Frog Commands The Internet's Attention With Its Adorable Cry

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Before the internet, we had to look to motivational "Hang in there" cat posters, Ziggy comics and novelty mugs for a quick visual pick-me-up. In this day and age, YouTube has no shortage of smile-inducers, and that's also evidently one of the unofficial traits of the desert tree frog. A video featuring this particular frog has gone viral, giving adorable kittens a run for their money in the cute video department.

Featured in the video below is a sandy little desert rain frog, an amphibian indigenous to Namibia and South Africa. What they lack in size, being on the smaller side, they apparently make up for with an adorable squeaking sound. Bask in its cuteness for half a minute.

Here's the caption beneath Dean Bosoff's video:

I recorded a short clip of the defensive cry of the Desert rain frog - Breviceps macrops while walking along the sand dunes in Port Nolloth, a coastal town in the Northern Cape province, it alerted me to its presence with its fearsome war cry. I knelt down and proceeded to photograph and film this unusual creature's behaviour.

It sounds like it has a squeaker in it. It's hard to get a sense of its size based on the video, but judging by the big grains of sand all over it, it looks pretty tiny by comparison. Apparently, this breed of frog is classified as "Vulnerable," as the species is on the decline, which is unfortunate. The world needs more cute things in it, not less. You can learn more about the desert tree frog at AmphibiaWeb.com.

On a random aside, the noise got my cat's attention, and she tends to ignore most sounds that come from my computer. Fearsome war cries tend to rattle her, though.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.