The Hula Painted Frog is one of the rarest animals on planet Earth: it was only seen once or twice in history, in the 1950s – just enough to identify it scientifically. As wetlands across the region made way to human activity – so did all hopes of finding it again. In fact, the frog was already pronounced an extinct species by the IUCN in 1996. 

Until one day in 2011, an Israeli Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) ranger saw something "weird" at the corner of his eye during his morning route, reached out his hand into the grass, and rediscovered one of the holy grails of ecology.

While keeping it a secret for three long days (until a scientific identification was made), we set the stage for the significant discovery at the INPA's Press Office: photos and videos of the rare frog were taken, stakeholders and experts were briefed, press releases were drafted in Hebrew, English and French, and back-stories were prepared for the big revelation. In addition, we did one more thing – we released the rarest of frogs back to nature.

Once going public – the story reached worldwide coverage, with thousands of reports from all across the globe, which triggered local and global interest that breached the limits of the environmental community. A special 15-minute report by the Israeli most watched newscast was later voted as the best news story of the year,

Winner of the 2013 Israeli PR Awards: Environmental Campaigns