A live Queensland tree frog ended up in a Scottsdale fridge after hitching its way into Tasmania via bananas delivered from a Coles supermarket.
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Rebecca Saunders found the green and yellow frog among a bunch of bananas in her fridge on Sunday night.
Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery Natural Sciences collection officer Simon Fearn said the frog was “definitely a stow away Queensland tree frog”.
“These common and widespread tropical frogs commonly turn up all over Australia in consignments of bananas. [It’s] too cold in Tasmania for establishment,” Mr Fearn said.
The bananas had been delivered to Ms Saunders’ Scottsdale home via Coles Online home delivery service last Wednesday.
“I want to know how a live frog has made it into Tasmania from Queensland?” she said.
“I’m amazed a live frog made it into Tasmania after all the fruit fly stuff.”
As Mr Fearn pointed out, it was not unusual for Queensland tree frogs to turn up outside their home state.
A Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment department spokesperson said frogs were sometimes found hidden in banana consignments.
“These reports are investigated in order to understand the circumstances,” the spokesperson said.
“Tasmania has processes in place with both exporters and importers and at the border to reduce the risk of unwanted pests, such as frogs, arriving in consignments from the mainland.”
A Coles spokesperson said bananas were shipped to Tasmania green, and ripened in the state before sale.
“Unripe bananas cannot host fruit fly, and so the fruit is not a vector for Queensland fruit fly to enter Tasmania,” the spokesperson said.
“We encourage the customer to contact Coles customer care so we can investigate further.”
Anyone who finds an unfamiliar animal in imported food produce should call Biosecurity Tasmania’s Invasive Species hotline on 1300 369 688.
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