Frog from Ecuador found hiding in bananas at Northampton Tesco
A frog from Ecuador has been found in a box of bananas at a Tesco store in Northampton.
On 28 November, staff at the Clannell Road supermarket spotted the amphibian amidst the fruit.
After safely confining the male frog, Tesco workers contacted the RSPCA who attended the scene to hand it over to the care of specialist keepers.
The frog is thought to have made the 5,000-mile trip by hopping into a shipping crate as it was being loaded in the South American country, the RSPCA charity said.
Nicknamed Juan, the amphibian is said to be in “good condition” despite his long trip.
It is yet to be formally identified but is thought to be a type of tree frog, of which there are over 900 different species.
Animal collection officer Greg Hagen, who attended the scene, said: “In my role I never quite know what I’m going to get called out to, or indeed where.
“But when ‘frog in Tesco’ appeared on my list of jobs, it was a bit of a surprise.”
Hagen added that the 5,000-mile journey would have been “quite an ordeal” for Juan and that the animal had been “really carefully looked after by the staff”.
“Thankfully, he was in good condition and able to be moved to a specialist where he’ll be well kept,” Hagen said.
A Tesco spokesperson told The Independent: “We sell millions of bananas every week and our growers work hard to clean and inspect all our fruit carefully, so it’s rare to find unexpected travellers like Juan.
“We’d like to thank the RSPCA for taking care of him and we hope he finds a more suitable home soon!”
This isn’t the first time an exotic animal has been found hiding in a delivery of fruit.
In 2015, a woman from south Wales discovered a white “spider cocoon” and webbing from one of the world’s most venomous spiders in a pack of bananas.
Maria Layton said that when she went to investigate, the cocoon started to “unfurl”, and that in her fear she thrust the banana into a sealed box in the freezer.
It is thought that the webbing belonged to a Brazilian wandering spider, which is listed by the Guinness World Records as the world’s most venomous spider.
The nocturnal creatures have earned the nickname of “banana spiders” because of their preference for building their webs amongst the fruit when they are not hunting at night.
The Independent has contacted Tesco for comment.
