[Image Credit: David C. Blackburn] Who would have thought! However, the frogs have to really kick hard to unclaw - the claw comes out by piercing the frog's skin. A half-baked defense mechanism is what I think this is. Maybe in another hundred years - and if we keep pushing their habitats to the margins - they'll fully bake their claws and get it ready to wage a war on humans.
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here in ky i used to go climbing in the caves off the ky river.at this underground pond i would see tracks going up a mud bank to what looked like a snake hole.i never could see what was making these tracks. one year the ground split making a opening that i could wiggel back about 30 feet.when i got as far as i could go i looked around and their was the hole in the mud bank dug out 20 or 30 feet. the ground splitting had exposed the last 5 feet. laying in the end of the hole inches from my face was a frog with no eyes about 14 inches in length.the thing made me nervous because on the end of his front legs were claws just like on a cat. thats what had made the tracks. i got out of their i did not want to wake him up.i was reading your article and i have allways wondered if that frog was unusual or is that normal on underground frogs. thanks.