World’s Tiniest Rodeo: Photographer Captures Frog Riding A Beetle

Yee-haw! Welcome to the world’s tiniest little rodeo featuring Mr. Beetle the rodeo bull and Mr. Frog the champion bull rider. You have never seen a show quite like this before, and it’s all thanks to talented wildlife photographer Hendy Mp, and the two adorable subjects he happened to stumble upon.

Hendy Mp lives in Kalimantan Barat, Indonesia, and he wasn’t far from home when the rodeo-crazed wildlife captured his eye. He saw the Reinwardt’s Flying Frog approach the giant horned wood-boring beetle, and climb right on top. Lucky for all of us, he captured the incredible sight on film for the world to see.

25-year-old Mp says, “‘It was such an amazing moment, the frog just saw the beetle and decided to crawl on top.” He adds, “The frog was on the beetle for five minutes and the insect was just happily running around.”

Hendy Mp specializes in macro photography, striving to highlight the beauty in small creatures we often fail to notice, such as insects, reptiles and amphibians. The beauty of this little frog and his beetle friend are most certainly brought to life in these images.

Even after the beetle began scurrying around, the frog managed to hold on tight and stay put, wearing a huge grin the entire time. In fact, the frog was able to stay on the back of the beetle for a solid 5 minutes before finally crawling off. I wonder if his little limbs were sore the day after his wild ride.

Reinwardt’s Flying Frog is a species of tree frog native to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The adorable creature is currently classified as a near threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UCN).

Thanks to the flying frog’s unique skin between its fingers and toes it can easily glide down trees as if it has wings. This species of frog is also commonly referred to as a black-webbed tree frog, and a green flying frog. The flying frog is typically a light or dark shade of green with spots on their back and head.

The females grow larger than the males, but the males tend to be more colorful with splashes of orange, purple, yellow, green or black adorning their abdomens. Their cute little horizontal pupils can be light yellow, light green, or light gray.

The tolerant giant horned wood-boring beetle that allowed the frog to take a ride on the wild side deserves some credit for his role in these awesome photos. Beetles are considered a part of the Coleoptera family, which contains more species than any other order.

In fact, 25% of known animals and 40% of all known insects are considered to be a part of the Coleoptera family. Wood-boring beetles survive on trees, or any other form of wood they can sink into. They are referred to as giant horned, or long horned, because their horn is almost as big, or bigger, than their body.

Many beetles have wings, but before this one would have had a chance to fly off Mr. Frog climbed aboard for a ride.

If you love looking at the tiny world brilliantly captured by Hendy Mp, you will also love the Magical Miniature World Of Snails By Vyacheslav Mischchenko.

The adorable flying frog clearly enjoyed his daring ride atop a large black beetle. He holds his front legs up in the air to try to keep his balance, but it really looks like he is saying, “Yee-haw! It’s a cowboy life for me.”

See more of Mp’s incredible photography by following him on Facebook or Twitter!

Photo Credit: 500px, Facebook, Twitter