London: In an unusual honour, a newly-discovered colourful Ecuadorian frog species has been turned into amphibian royalty after being named after Prince Charles.
The honour has been bestowed on Charles, 63, the heir apparent to the British throne, in recognition of his charity work to protect their rain forest homes. Hyloscirtus princ-echarlesi, or the Prince Charles stream tree frog, was first discovered by Dr Luis A. Coloma in 2008 amongst specimens collected for a museum.
A subsequent expedition in the Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park, Ecuador, found limited numbers of the frogs after areas of the forest were cleared for agriculture, the BBC reported. Two juvenile frogs are now being raised in captivity as part of the Amphibian Ark project in the hope they will breed and eventually boost populations in the wild.