Chance Harbour family finds extremely rare blue frog taking up residence in backyard pond

An extremely rare blue frog became a backyard attraction for a Chance Harbour family.

Ashley Bright was working on her property, when her daughters Mariah and Carly told her they spotted an oddly hued amphibian in their backyard pond.

"I just yelled to my mom and she didn't believe me and then she saw that, and then it was a blue frog," said eight-year-old Mariah Bright-Vautour. "She was shocked."

Mariah said her younger sister Carlyspotted "Bluey" sitting on the edge of their pond that is home to several other frogs.

WATCH | 'We wanted to name him Bluey'

Its not easy being green, but rare blue frog finds fame in Chance Harbour

2 months ago

Duration 2:25

Ashley Brights daughters Mariah and Carly came across the oddly-hued amphibian while catching critters in their backyard pond and Bluey ended up capturing their hearts.

"When we saw the frog, we wanted to name him Bluey," she said, referring to a popular animated children's series.

Bright said both her daughters spend a lot of time catching frogs at the pond and she had never seen anything like their unique catch before.

"In the sun it goes from teal to a blue and almost looks metallic," she said.

A unique mutation

Greg Jongsma, a frog biologist and the New Brunswick Museum's assistant curator of zoology, called the find extremely rare and harmless.

"There's no real poisonous frogs in New Brunswick, certainly not to the level of having concern ... there's no difference in the chemical composition of the blue frogs versus green frogs," he clarified.

He said the colouring is a unique mutation in the commonly found green frogs or the Rana clamitans.

"Less than one per cent of the population would have that blue mutation, probably closer to 0.003."

Jongsma explained that the frogs are green because they produce both blue and yellow pigments, but in some rare cases where the yellow production is absent, it makes a blue frog.

He said the blue mutation is mostly found in eastern North American areas like the Maritimes, Maine andNew Hampshire. However, the sightings are rare due to their tiny share of the population.

Jongsma said in his 30 years of being a frog biologist, he has only seen about six blue frogs.

"Not a ton is known about the actual mechanisms of the mutation and where it is in the genome, but it is inherited."

"So yes, there would be at least an increased likelihood that there would be more blue babies being produced from a blue frog," Jongsma said.

He said the colour depends on the amount of pigmentation, meaning some frogs may have patches of blue.

But a completely blue frog like Bluey is a lucky backyard find, he said.

He advisedpeople to report any blue frog sightings to the New Brunswick Museum.

Missing Bluey

After studying the frog for his peculiar colour, Bright said the frog was released back into the pond on July 7.

The family continued to see him for two more days, but haven't seen him since.

"We were out here all day, every day, every night. I came out here in the middle of the night to see if it was here first thing in the morning," she said.

Jongsma said his suspicions are that Bluey could either be hiding in the pond's vegetation, rocks or sand.

If not, he may have either moved to a nearby pond or become prey to predators, he said.

"It hopped away, but I hope it hops back and maybe for all I know, maybe, it's laid eggs, and maybe we possibly get little baby blue frogs," said Bright with hope.