A Wallace's flying frog photographed in Knoxville, Tennessee
A Wallace's flying frog photographed in Knoxville, Tennessee
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark

Wallace's Flying Frog

The overachieving Wallace's flying frog wasn't content to just hop and swim. Thousands of years of watching birds navigate the rain forest and avoid predators by taking to the sky appears to have convinced this unique amphibian that air travel is the way to go.

Also known as parachute frogs, Wallace's flying frogs inhabit the dense tropical jungles of Malaysia and Borneo. They live almost exclusively in the trees, descending only to mate and lay eggs.

When threatened or in search of prey, they will leap from a branch and splay their four webbed feet. The membranes between their toes and loose skin flaps on their sides catch the air as they fall, helping them to glide, sometimes 50 feet or more,

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