world's loneliest frog

The ‘World’s Loneliest Frog’ Is Under a Lot of Pressure

Photo: Robin Moore/Global Wildlife Conservation

Dating is nerve-wracking as it is, but for the “World’s Loneliest Frog,” the stakes are even more stressfully high: His first date after ten years of bachelorhood could spell the fate for an entire species.

Romeo, a Sehuencas Water Frog who has spent the last ten years in isolation at Bolivia’s Cochabamba Natural History Museum, was once thought to be the last of his kind. Then came a breakthrough almost a year after matchmaking biologists began their search for a mate for the amphibian (even making him a Match.com profile), scientists say they may have found him a Juliet.

During an expedition to a remote Bolivian cloud forest, scientists found five wild Sehuencas Water Frogs total, two of which are female, and one of which they say is the perfect age for Romeo, according to Livescience. They’re hoping that finding a mate for Romeo means that they can stop the Sehuencas from becoming extinct.

But Romeo hasn’t met Juliet yet, and she’s not quite ready for their blind date at the moment — according to the Global Wildlife Conservation, she’s currently under quarantine so that she can acclimate to an environment that replicates the conditions in the wild, a.k.a. the perfect environment for a date.

Expedition leader Teresa Camacho Badani told BBC that she’s hoping their meeting will be a case of opposites attracting: “Romeo is really calm and relaxed and doesn’t move a whole lot. He’s healthy and likes to eat, but he is kind of shy and slow. [Juliet is] really energetic, she swims a lot and she eats a lot and sometimes she tries to escape.”

If the couple doesn’t click, Global Wildlife Conservation said, “We down a tub of ice cream, watch The Notebook, and then get back to it.”

It’s probably helpful that there’s one other female frog in the group if things don’t go according to plan, but either way, at least Romeo has five new potential friends.

The ‘World’s Loneliest Frog’ Is Under a Lot of Pressure