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Canadian Couple Find A Live Frog Living Inside A Green Pepper

Canadian Couple Find A Live Frog Living Inside A Green Pepper

No one knows how it got there, and now they never will...

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A Canadian couple got the shock of their life while preparing dinner after they discovered a live frog inside one of their bell peppers.

Despite suffering a close call with the kitchen knife, the frog was completely unharmed, and the couple - after recovering from their initial surprise - placed him and the pepper carefully in a container.

The couple, as well as the Canadian authorities, have absolutely no idea how the tiny amphibian managed to get inside the seemingly whole green pepper.

Radio Canada/CBC

In fact, the only creature that had any idea how it got in there at all was the frog itself.

Which brings us to some bad news.

After their astounding discovery, the couple handed the food and the frog - purchased at a local supermarket - over to the Québec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPAQ) and they killed the poor critter!

Yes, they euthanized the frog while they were trying to gather theories as to how it got in.

Even worse than that, they're still not sure.

Radio Canada/CBC

What we do know is that it was identified as a green tree frog, and was likely from Honduras, where the veg was grown.

That's it.

Surely the poor frog didn't have to die for that, right?

Anyway, Gagnon and Blackburn couldn't see any visible holes in the pepper, so it couldn't have just crawled in there.

Gagnon told Radio Canada: "It's like the secret of Caramilk [reference for the kids, there], how the frog ended up in the pepper, I don't know!"

Blackburn added: "They cannot see it. A pepper is closed. You can't see if there is a frog in there or not."

The authorities in Canada receive around 20 cases like this each year, but usually it concerns spiders and insects. Stuff that finds a way inside things a bit easier, really.

Radio Canada/CBC

MAPAQ spokesperson Yohan Dallaire-Boily said: "The analysis was carried out by euthanising the frog to carry out the laboratory expertise.

"If we analyse it, it's for food security, to make sure everything is healthy for the people who have consumed it or not."

So, here are some of the best theories.

One suggests that the frog chewed in, but the couple didn't notice the hole.

Another suggests it got in while a hole was present during growth of the pepper, then the hole sealed.

Others include immaculate conception - Frog Jesus, anyone? - and a hoax. Do we believe any of those, though?

Radio Canada/CBC

Here's the take of frog expert Patrick Moldowan, a director at large at the Canadian Herpetological Society: "It almost certainly did not come to be a sizeable adult frog by developing as a tadpole.

"For example, the egg development time, process of metamorphosis, and post-maturity growth (to reach adult size) are well beyond the time it takes a green pepper to grow."

Confused? You should be. Hell, everyone else is.

Probably not as confused as the poor frog, who was taken from a great environment with food, shelter, and water, then ruthlessly and clinically dispatched in a cold, sterile laboratory.

RIP Mystery Frog. We hardly knew ye.

Featured Image Credit: Radio Canada/CBC

Topics: World News, Weird, Animals