theroyalfrogman:

Not all animal photos are cute.

If you have ever been on tumblr, you have likely stumbled upon seemingly adorable animal photos such as these.

While these photos of frogs riding on a crocodile look innocent enough, the reality of what these animals went through for the sake of a cute photo is anything but humane.

This photoset will be a great example of cruel photography. You may notice that the frog’s mouth is open in these photos. In the wild, frogs usually only open their mouths to release a distress call, or to eat. This frog has his mouth open in every one of the photos. It’s clearly not eating, and if it was making a distress call it would be in a defensive position.

So, why is it’s mouth open?

Easy. This entire photoshoot is fake.

This frog was likely put in a fridge to cause it to become lethargic. The barely moving, and likely extremely stressed frog was placed on the beetle and was posed. In the first photo, the fingers on the frog’s extended hand are curled. While engaging in a hand movement tree frogs keep their fingers straight so the hand can land properly in the chosen spot. Frogs don’t make fists, so the most likely answer for the frog’s hand “movement” is a wire. Another thing to note about putting herps in cold temps is that it causes their muscles to weaken. The frog’s mouth was very likely pulled open, and the frog didn’t have enough energy to close it due to being exposed to cold temperatures.

So, how can you identify which pictures are real or not? The easiest way to tell is to simply look at the behavior of the animals pictured. For the frogs and the crocodile, the easiest way to tell is to look at the species pictured. An arboreal frog such as a white’s tree frog has no reason to be on the back of a crocodile low to the ground, and it’s even more unlikely that multiple happened to be posed in that exact position.

Many of these photos seem endearing, but think about what you’re looking at before sharing it.

I will now leave you with this cruelty free frog photo to show you that frogs can be cute without being forced into a fridge.