Peru saves rare frogs from cocktail blender

LIMA - Peruvian officials saved some 4,000 endangered frogs from being whizzed into popular drinks after they were found hidden in an abattoir.

"We were checking the fridges when out jumped a frog. It had escaped, they were in big crates," a spokesman for Lima city hall said.

Frog cocktails are popular in the Andes because of their supposed aphrodisiac qualities. Shops in central Lima selling the drinks have tanks where customers can choose their frogs.

He said the Telmatobius frogs - which had apparently been brought from the southern lakes in the high Andes - were found stored in the abattoir.

They were taken to a colonial fountain in central Lima to splash around before being returned to their native lakes by ecological police.

"There were about 5,000 of them but 1,000 died because of the conditions and in transit," the spokesman said.

- REUTERS