Mystery solved! Alien frog species, abnormal to Gozitan territory, traced back to Turkey
They were likely first introduced in the 1990s.
There are hundreds of sub species of frogs found all across the world and the Bedriaga frogs found in Gozo are one of them. However, they initially proved to be quite a puzzling mystery to solve as they were not were they were supposed to be. Nobody could quite figure out how they even showed up there.
Thankfully, as a result of a recent study carried out by Maltese scientists (Arnold and Jeffrey Sciberras, Alain Deidun) and Slovakian geneticists (Petr Papežík, Michal Benovics, Peter Mikulíček) the code has finally been cracked.
The frog is typically found in areas in Gozo such as the Ta’ San Raflu pond as well as other areas around Xatt l-Ahmar.
After examining 17 different frogs, the scientists discovered that this species of frogs traces all the way to southern Anatolia in Turkey. Someone travelled with them from Turkey to Malta and released them into the wild.
They were introduced back in the 1990s and have since been leaving quite a harmful impact on Malta’s true native species. Due to this, one of the writers of this study, Alan Deidun took to social media to express how “exotic species should never be released into the wild!”.