A tree frog from the Dominican Republic has turned up in a family’s Sainsbury’s shopping.

Iain Holloway from Tamworth, Staffordshire, said his wife discovered the little amphibian sealed inside a bag of Fair Trade bananas.

“We then all stood in the kitchen looking at each other wondering what to do,” he explained.

They called the RSPCA, which said the frog had survived a 4,300-mile (6,920km) journey in good condition.

Mr Holloway said his 12-year-old son did a bit of research while they were waiting for the RSPCA to arrive and, from the markings, identified the hopping visitor as 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,” Mr Holloway said.

The bag of bananas arrived to the family home in a delivery from the supermarket giant.

The 1.5-inch (3.8cm) frog is now in the care of the RSPCA.

The charity’s animal rescue officer Jonny Wood collected the frog on 24 September, the day after the family had found it, and said it was “bright and alert and has since been feeding well”.

He added the family “did exactly the right thing by not touching the amphibian, given the uncertainty about what sort of frog we were dealing with”.

“These frogs are not dangerous or poisonous, but very common in the Dominican Republic,” he said.

It is not the first time Mr Wood has been called to the aid of a foreign visitor.

Last year he was asked to collect a toad which was discovered at Birmingham Airport after travelling from Pakistan in a suitcase.

11 comments

  1. Damn illegal immigrants! First they came over in dinghies, then they flew over with bananas, what next? Why isn’t Daily Mail talking about this?

  2. Someday you go through the rain,
    And someday you feed on a tree frog,
    It’s ordeal, the trial to survive.

  3. Aww I’m glad it was ok. If you’ve ever been to the Caribbean you’ll be aware of how loud they can be at night, I hope he’s ok on his own!

  5. Aww I’m glad it was alright, good on the family for researching right before anything, and contacting people. That’s a tough frog.

  6. You had one job, self service check out, but when the moment you’ve been waiting and training for all these years finally came you fucked it up. Here was your one genuine chance to say: “unexpected item in the bagging area”

  10. The little froggie has probably already been incinerated because of concerns over diseases it may have brought in. 🙁

    Although maybe they set up a go-fund-me to fly him back. That’s what I’d like to think happened anyway.

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