The search is on for a lazy, aggressive, colossal and carnivorous frog - the rare giant bullfrog.
The Giant Bullfrog Survey has been launched by the University of Pretoria and the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and they want you, the public, to assist with compiling a distribution database of this bullfrog, which will assist in conservation planning.
The amphibian has been listed as a "near threatened" species by the International Union for Conservation and Nature.
Caroline Yetman, who is doing doctoral research on the giant bullfrog at Pretoria University, initiated the project.
The only way to successfully track down your giant bullfrog is in the rain "The point of the survey is to obtain a large number of locality records for these frogs. There are huge gaps in known habitats and we don't know where else they are found," Yetman said.
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This would enable environmentalist to conserve the area.
Yetman has studied some giant bullfrogs found in the Glen Austin pan in the Midrand area, which, she says, is the second biggest breeding area after a site in Benoni.
However, their numbers are dwindling, with about 100 in the Glen Austin pan.
The only way to successfully track down your giant bullfrog is in the rain. They spend most of the year underground and emerge only after heavy rain at the start of summer.
They are frogs known to stand up to lions and leopards to protect their young "Following the first heavy spring rains, these frogs spend only a few days above ground, breeding and feeding. Therefore, there are only very small windows of opportunity to record them," Yetman said.
So how do you know if what you are seeing is really a giant bullfrog?
"You can't mistake it. It's green on top with yellow underneath and orange underneath its armpits. It has two large teeth on the lower jaw," Yetman said.
The giant bullfrog also had unusual breeding behaviour.
"It exhibits a breeding behaviour found in antelopes," said Yetman.
"The males congregate in a relatively small area and establish little territories so that they are all bunched up together.
"The females then come and move to these territories, mate and leave. The male takes care of the young," Yetman said.
So, armed with this information and your camera, venture out after the first rains to track down a giant bullfrog.
To take part in the survey, you should photograph a side-view so that judges can identify the species.
Submit your picture, along with your entry form, and you could win one of three digital cameras.
Entry forms and more information can be found on www.giantbullfrog.org.
The site will go live next week.
They are frogs known to stand up to lions and leopards to protect their young. And they bite.
Caroline Yetman, who is doing her PhD on the behaviour of the giant bullfrog, explained:
Giant bullfrogs inhabit areas of open or wooded grassland where the soil is poorly drained and where shallow, rain-filled pans develop.
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