Thursday, April 26, 2007

Big mouth

So I was lounging on the couch the other day, eating a bowl of Chili's salsa with leftover tortilla chip particles from the Tostitos bag all mixed in with a spoon, when Animal Planet's Most Extreme came on, and what else should it feature but the most hardcore crazy mouths of the animal kingdom.

Now, nothing in the eating category should really come as a shock to a culture that invented hotdog-eating contests in which regurgitation results in disqualification. But being the amateur Animal Planet naturalist that I am, I decided to stick around. Of course, there were the usual specimens: the snakes, the sharks, the hippopotomi. What I wasn't expecting, however, was the choice for Most Extreme Mouth on the planet. Ladies and gentleman, meet the Argentine Horned Frog, more commonly known as the Argentinian Wide-Mouthed Frog.


Owmmph.

This ugly fucker has earned itself the nickname Jabba the Hut, probably because its mouth accounts for around 50% of its body. Members of the species will frequently eat themselves to death, continuing to shove massive, often times impossibly large, foodstuffs into their mouths until their stomach ruptures.

The Argentine Horned Frog is known for attacking and attempting to digest anything that comes into its territory, be it a mouse or a horse or another, slightly pissed off and much larger Argentine Horned Frog. Once it bites, the frog won't let go of a possible meal, even if that possible meal is still alive and well and doesn't seem to notice that a frog is trying to eat it.

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