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These creatures are common on the rocky shores of the Western Cape.

They are either orange or blue-grey in colour. The spines are surrounded by a circle of tiny white nippers that are used for defence and to keep the starfish clean.

Honeycomb moray eels are widespread throughout the world, from the eastern coast of Africa to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

These “flat frogs” live in natural water-bodies, but you might see them in your garden pond. They also don’t mind living in the local sewerage works. At the end of the rainy season, they bury themselves under wet mud, where they hibernate until the next rains.

Also known as African clawed frogs, these “flat frogs” have powerful back legs and sharp claws on three of their toes. They hold prey in their mouths and tear it with an overhead “kick” by their back legs.

Common platannas feed in the water on any living creatures they can overpower. Their prey includes frogs and tadpoles (including their own kind), insects and other invertebrates (mosquito larvae are consumed by young frogs), small fish, young birds and mice that fall into the water. They even feed on carrion in the water.

In the 1930s, it was discovered that a female common platanna would spawn if injected with the urine of a pregnant woman (the hormone chorionic gonadotropin being the active ingredient). In the 1940s and ‘50s, this was the only available pregnancy test and many hospitals around the world kept and bred platannas so that they could perform such tests.

The Western leopard toad uses camouflage to blend into its environment and hide from predators.

The Western Cape is the only place in the world where you will find Western leopard toads.

They live in natural vegetation, on farms and in compost heaps in gardens, but move to water, especially wetlands, to mate and lay their eggs.

Keep your eyes open for Western leopard toads on the roads particularly in August when they are breeding and in November when the young toads are making their way from the water to land. Please brake for the toads!

The snoring toad

Male Western leopard toads start calling in early spring – their call sounds just like loud snoring! When you hear them calling you will know that they are about to start moving towards water, where they will mate and lay their eggs.

Many Western leopard toads are killed during the breeding season as they have to get through or over garden walls, pavements and roads to get to their breeding sites near water. If you see a toad on the road, please pick it up and put it on the other side of the road (in the same direction in which it was going).

Teddy, the tongueless toad

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This Western leopard toad, named Teddy, was found at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) after nature conservation staff based at Kenilworth Racecourse received a call from a concerned SAAO staff member, reporting an injured toad with its “tongue hanging out of its mouth”. Conservation staff rushed to site and found the toad in a terrible condition. He had most likely been hit by a car and was very thin. He had a broken lower jaw bone, a protruding upper jaw bone, several wounds on his head, severe damage to both eyes and a tongue that was red, swollen and hanging out of his mouth.

Teddy was slowly nursed back to health by conservation officials, but his tongue was so badly damaged that it had to be amputated. His injuries also resulted in blindness in one eye and partial blindness in the other. Initially he had to be force-fed as he did not know how to catch food without his tongue, but he quickly learned to grab prey and now feeds on his own.

Teddy cannot be released back into the wild, but will remain at the Two Oceans Aquarium as an ambassador for his species. Toads face great danger from cars and people and many are killed or fatally injured. We plead with every person reading this story to take care when driving and watch out for toads and frogs on the roads! The future of frogs is in our hands!

This is a temporary exhibit. It is not easy to keep frogs in captivity as they are easily infected with disease and parasites. Although it is not policy, CapeNature has given the Aquarium special permission to display these frogs in recognition of the Year of the Frog.

Rockhopper penguins are the smallest of the crested penguin species. They live on rocky, inaccessible coasts and are renowned for their jumping ability.

Anemones are simple animals that look like delicate flowers. But these “flowers” can move and catch prey.

Anemones have poisonous barbs in their tentacles that fire on contact, injecting poison into their prey.

To protect themselves, anemones secrete a special slime that prevents the stinging cells on one tentacle from firing when they come into contact with other tentacles or with the anemone’s body.

According to Two Oceans: A guide to the Marine Life of Southern Africa (Struik, 2007), the common octopus lives at depths of up to 200m and feeds on crabs, shellfish and rock lobsters. It lives in crevices and holes and is fiercely territorial.

Giant kob (previously known as dusky kob) are found in estuaries and on rocky reefs and sandy bottoms from southern Mozambique to False Bay. They are also found off the coasts of Australia, Japan, Pakistan and India.

This shark is called a pyjama shark because it looks like it’s wearing striped pyjamas.