That is the view of chief scientist of the international group Amphibian Survival Alliance Dr Phil Bishop, of Dunedin.
Kermit had been a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and detrimental to the cause of preserving frog species because he made people think frogs were funny and people did not take them seriously, he said.
Dr Bishop made his comments in response to questions about why until now, conserving frogs did not appear to attract the same level of attention by the general public as that of birds and mammals.
He said some people dismissed frogs as slimy creatures, and did not find them attractive because they did not show facial expressions the way mammals did .
However, English-born Dr Bishop, who has been fascinated with frogs since childhood, said as he spread the word about frog conservation he was finding there were a lot of "closet frog lovers out there".
Many people thought frogs were "fantastic".
That needed to be channelled into frog preservation, he said.
