Romeo is a name given to a Sehuencas water frog that lives at Bolivia’s Cochabamba Natural History Museum.
For years, Romeo has been emitting plaintive mating calls within his confinement, but scientists fear that there are no mates left for the lonely amphibian. In a last effort to help the frog and hopefully to preserve the future of the species, researchers are scouting the web for a "Juliet."
And here, they have come up with a creative way to draw attention to their efforts: creating a Match.com profile for Romeo.
"Not to start this off super heavy or anything, but I’m literally the last of my species," the profile reads.
"I’m a pretty simple guy. I tend to keep to myself and have the best nights just chilling at home, maybe binge-watching the waters around me. I do love food, though, and will throw a pair of pants on and get out of the house if there’s a worm or snail to be eaten!"
Through the profile, the researchers also added Romeo in preferring stocky build females that are between two and three inches tall, a non-smoker, moderate drinker, never married and definitely wants kids.
Amphibians in general, have been hit pretty bad in what some scientists described as the “sixth mass extinction.” This is where around half of all amphibian species (which includes toads, salamanders, frogs, and newts) are in decline, and a third face extinction. Sehuencas water frogs, which are endemic to the eastern Andes of Bolivia, were one of them.
According to the U.S. federal scientists, the overall amphibian population is shrinking in size by 3.8 percent every year. That trend has continued since the 1960s, due to climate change, habitat loss, water pollution, pesticide applications, and diseases like infectious fungi which can quickly decimate populations.
And here, the researchers said that Romeo may be the last of its kind.
Romeo's profile links to a donation page, which is part of a campaign to raise $15,000 to help biologists search areas where Sehuencas water frogs were once thriving, helping Romeo to find a mate before it's too late. Match.com matches all donations made between February 9 and 2018's Valentine’s Day.
The frog's species tends to live around 15 years. Since Romeo is 10 years old when its Match.com profile was created, it has about 5 years to go before it dies.
"We don’t want him to lose hope," said Arturo Munoz, a conservation scientist. "We continue to remain hopeful that others are out there so we can establish a conservation breeding program to save this species."