Cyclone Cheerleaders, Narrow Mouthed Frog

A few days back cyclone Amphan has hit our area very hard. It was the biggest cyclone that has hit our area may be in last 100 years. As the cyclone was blowing over our area, we all were hanging onto our dear life. I think all the birds, animals who were not under water or inside a burrow were frightened. But there was a group of animals who were actually cheering up. They were singing in happiness. There voices were reaching our ears over the sound of the severe storm.

Common Indian Toad

We have three lily ponds in our front yard. And as the saying goes, ‘where there is water, there is frog’, atleast when it rains. So these three tiny water bodies become the go to place for the nearby frogs and toads in the mating season. They all gather there and start their chorus song, each one in their own pitch and tempo. These are the only ones who became happy in the time of cyclone.

Bull Frog Sp.

So in the night when the cyclone had passed over our area and the storm had decreased in intensity, I decided to catch the culprits red handed. So armed with a torch and my camera, I stepped in our front yard. Due to my sudden appearance they stopped for a moment. Then started calling again one by one. I found that the whole area is teeming with frogs and toads. I had to be careful before putting my steps anywhere.

Jerdon's Bull Frog

There was mostly Common Indian Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) of various sizes. Then there was a cricket frog (Fejerverya limnocharis). Another most common frog was bull frogs. They may be Jerdon’s Bull frog (Hoplobatrachus crassus) or may be Indian Bull Frog (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus). As both are found in our area identifying small ones is a bit problem. There was a huge Indian Bull Frog also measuring snout to vent around 6” in length. But there was someone whose calls were loudest of all yet it could not be seen any where. Only as I crouched on my knees that I found a tiny little frog calling from under dry leaves. It was a Ornate Narrow Mouthed Frog (Microhyla ornata).

Indian Bull Frog

They are really tiny, about the size of fingernail. They rarely reach lengths more than 25mm. True to their name, there mouth is small compared to other frogs. They are generally found all over India, South East Asia, South China and Taiwan. It is one of the smallest amphibian of India too. Ornate Narrow Mouth frogs eat ants and other small insects. Breading starts with the onset of monsoon
. Several males may gather at a place and start calling the ladies. But as they as surprisingly loud and have a ventriloquilistic quality, finding the frog in leaf litter or in grass become very difficult. They are a good jumper too. They can jump almost a feet or more which is huge compared to their own body length.

Ornate Narrow Mouthed Frog

Our home is surrounded by such little jewels which are there to discovered. It only takes a little initiative to actually go there and find them.

Ornate Narrow Mouthed Frog

***Side note: if bull frogs are so common, so why dont we see big bull frogs often?? Read this blog to know about that.

Love is in the water

I have always thought of photographing frogs at night but didn’t do it. Mainly due to my enormous laziness. But a few days back when I returned from work I heard the frogs were calling their hearts out. We have pumped out the water of our pond and there many frogs gathered. So I thought this is the day. I changed dress took out my camera and went looking for frogs.

 Armed with a mini flashlight when I entered the area suddenly all frogs stopped calling. Only after a few silent and dark minutes they started to call one by one. Except a few species only the male frogs call. The females choose the males based on their call. By analysing the call, females can identify species, size, health etc of the male frog. Frog call also has many different purpose. They announce there presence with it, they impress the females for mating with it, they also deter rivals with call. But this call also attracts predators. So they have to be alert too. Calling is also physically very demanding for them.

So following the call I mainly found indian cricket frogs there. Two big sized bull frog were also there. Then I found a checkered keelback water snake waiting patiently at the edge of water for a tasty frog dinner. At the same time, from the other side of the pond I heard the distinct sound of a dying frog captured by a snake. When these non venomous snakes, checkered keelback, rat snake etc catch a frog, they dont kill the frog, instead directly swallow the frog. At this time frogs make a typical sound, once heard you will never mistake it to identify. But where are the couples?? 

This was not a rainy day. So there was no mating frenzy. After searching for some time I found a couple of cricket frog. They were in amplexus. This is a typical pose found in many external fertilisation species but mainly in amphibians. The male climbs up the back of the female and grasp her in the throat, armpit or belly region with their forearm. This way when the female frog releases egg, the male can simultaneously release sperm to facilitate the external fertilisation of their eggs. Frogs show many different type of parental behaviour. Frogs like our cricket frog, pond frog, indian toad etc who show no parental work, they rely on enormous number of eggs. On the other extreme poison dart frog of amazon rainforest lays only a few eggs. Then after hatching they carry the tadpoles on their back and deposit them on their individual pool singly. The female frog supply the tadpoles with unfertilised egg as food until they transform as a frog. There are many other type of example in between. 

After spotting this couple, I couldn’t find any other. Waited for ling, donated atleast a litre blood to mosquitoes but still no success. So I called it a day. This was a good experience. I had to try it in other places also to find other frog species in amplexus. 

Living Fossil, Himalayan Newt

This year Durga Puja was a bit different. I didn’t go to pandels to see goddess Durga but went to a small mountain village to see an animal which is the only representative of its family in india. It is Himalayan Newt. Though it is not uncommon in Darjeeling Himalayas, we choose Namthing Lake as there is an established conservation site of Himalayan Newts, which greatly increases our chance of seeing one.

When we reached Namthing Pokhri, it was raining. Rain may be a disturbance for us humans but being an amphibian, it is a happy time for Himalayan Newts. We searched the lake for it but with no success. In the next day we went to the site again but this time we didn’t took chance and asked the local people for help. This time after a few minutes of searching, yes, it was there. To be truthful, in the first impression it looked very ugly.

Himalayan Newt, Tylototriton verrucosus, is an amphibian. It also has a tail. So, it looks like a hybrid between a lizard and a toad. It has a moist, warty skin, a laterally compressed tail for swimming and well developed limbs for walking. Its total length is from 130-200mm of which almost half the length is tail. It has a dark brown coloration which helps it to stay hidden in the submerged vegetation during the day. But in the breeding time the males sport a orange red belly color, which they use to attract females. It is a nocturnal animal so it comes out of water in the night to feed on the ground. It generally eats insects, earth worms, tadpoles etc. in India it is found in  North Bengal, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Though it is a lower animal, it too has an elaborate courtship ritual. First the male shows its orange red belly color to the approaching female. Then the ritual begins. The male also calls like frogs and toads but in a lower pitch. After the ritual male grabs the female by the foreleg and stay mounted for an hour. Male then deposit a bag of sperm which the female picks up with her anal opening. Then the female lays eggs in the submerged vegetation of a stagnant pool.

One more interesting thing about this animal is its regeneration power. We all have seen how geckos lose their tail and regenerate but Himalayan Newt have gone further and can regenerate even a bitten limb.

Like all the other amphibians Himalayan Newt also hibernates in the winter season to hide from the cold weather. It generally buries itself into the soil 6” to several feet deep. But this cannot save it from the other enemies like habitat destruction, use of pesticide or the fungal infection. So the future does not look  very bright for this little creature which came to earth even before the dinosaurs.

Jumping Chicken (Frog Meat Trade)

A few days back when I was browsing Facebook, I stumbled upon an interesting cartoon. It was about frog meat industry. I got interested and tried to find out more. A little bit of searching and reading brought out some anxious facts.

image courtesy: http://www.savethefrogs.com

In contrary to my belief that only tribal and rural people eats frogs, it is a delicacy among the people of 1st world countries. Even they have depleted their frog population so much that they are forced to import it from third world countries of Latin America and South-east Asia. Currently Indonesia is the biggest exporter of frog legs. It exports about 142 million frogs each year and about 7times of this number is consumed in the country. Thailand, China, Malaysia, Brazil and several other countries also exports frog legs. Frog legs are popular in south east Asian countries but they are in huge demand in countries like France, Italy, USA etc. even Mr. Barak Obama was seen eating frog legs in a party. This demand has resulted in the disappearance of many frog species and several other species have become rare. A few countries have set up frog farms to supply the demand but still most of the frogs come from the wild.

image courtesy: Getty images

What is the actual impact of this? A few years back India was the biggest exporter of frog legs. This trade was so popular that frogs were called jumping chicken. But India has banned this trade in 1987. Bangladesh has also banned it in 1990. They must have good reasons to so. This frog meat trade does not affect all frog species. It only targets the bigger species. In India, the targeted species were Indian Pond Frog(Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis), Indian Bull Frog(Hoplobatrachus tigerinus), Jerdon’s Bull Frog(Hoplobatrachus crassus). Frogs are a natural insecticide. They eat a whole lot of insects, molluscs and other things that damages our crop production. And the bigger the frog, the more insect it can eat. Not only in frog stage, in the tadpole stage also it helps us by cleaning up the water. Now when we picked up frogs from the environment, the insect population multiplied considerably and crop damage also have increased. The problem became so severe in India that the revenue lost due to crop damage far exceeded the revenue generated through frog leg exporting. Same thing has happened with Bangladesh and same thing will happen with the other countries too. Frogs are an important part of our eco-system and removing them from it is not a wise decision.

Indian Bull Frog

15yrs after banning the trade, frog population in India has revived itself and the species are not in danger anymore. But thanks to Mr. Manjunath Sullolli an image from Goa brings out the question again, “has the trade really stopped in India?” Actually as long as there will be demand in the market, some people will always be ready to supply. If only we can change our taste for frog meat, the frogs can really be saved.

image courtesy: Mr. Manjunath Sullolli

confusing color (Common Tree Frog)

Previously I talked about unusual behavior of herpeto-fauna regarding hibernation. This new incident is also related to that.

A few days back, in the morning, I was working in a abandoned garden. Suddenly a “white thing with black spots on it” caught my attention. It was inside a well. So I leaned into it.It was a frog. The size and shape was also telling me that it was a Common Tree Frog. But I was confused about the coloration. I have seen Common Tree frogs earlier. They were light brown in color and had black stripes on the legs but no spots on the back. This one however has prominent big black spots on the back and its coloration is white, not brown. So when I returned home I consulted the books by J. C. Daniel and Ranjit Daniel and found some really interesting points about Common Tree Frogs. And these points some what confirmed that it is a Common Tree Frog.
In Hindi, Common Tree Frog is called ‘Chunam’ Frog. Chunam means lime. This frog bears white coloration, the coloration of lime, and that is how it has got its name. So now I became more interested and wanted to study it further. But where am I gonna find it?? If it’s not hibernating, it will surely come out at night to hunt. Another fact I learned came in handy. Previous studies showed that this frog comes out every night to hunt but it returns to the exact place at dawn. That solved my problem. Now I know where to find it. The next morning I visited that place again and yes, I found the frog at exactly the same place. It was resting 6’-8’ down into the well.
So I climbed down the wall of the well to get it. My brother was with me to help me do things. Catching it was not a problem. My personal experience showed me that Common Tree Frogs don’t always jump at the first instance. If you put your hand in-front of it and push a little from behind, it will even crawl up on your hand and stay there. I caught it and brought it home.

At home, I setup a little environment in my new terrarium and the frog found a comfortable corner inside an earthen pot readily. It passed the whole day inside the pot. At night it came out and after some time, crawled up the glass wall of my terrarium and stayed there whole night. It was quite surprising how it sticked to the smooth glass wall. In the morning I took it out and released it. I found an explanation for the color but the spots are yet to be confirmed. Though I read in the books that Common Tree Frogs sports black stripes and spots on the back but the photographs and live ones I have seen didn’t have the spots.


Natural history
Common Tree Frog (Polypedates maculatus) is one of the most common tree frogs of India. It is a medium sized frog. Adults’ measure upto 3.8-8.5 cm. Females are larger than the males. It is found through-out the Indian sub-continent except the arid and semi-arid regions. It has a interesting semi urban characteristic. It is fond of human homes and thus in cities with extensive gardens, it is very abundant. Common Tree Frogs enter human homes and take shelter behind books, vases, inside cupboards, cloths etc. and once they settle down, it is very difficult to get rid of them. They tend to come back to the exact place even they are thrown out of the window. They do this to stay away from the dryness of outside air. But every evening they go out to replenish their water stock and to hunt. Frogs can absorb water through skin. But this particular species has developed this to a greater level. They can absorb significant amount of water and store it partly under abdomen and partly under the skin of hind legs.
Common Tree Frogs can also change their body color to a certain extent to match the color of their surroundings. In day time when they are in rest, they sport white color. In night when they are active, they sport light-dark brown color. Their breeding starts in May on the onset of monsoon season. Their mating call is like “DODODODO--DODO”. They lay their eggs in foam nests on over-hanging leaf on a water pool. Tadpoles that emerge from the eggs are washed to the pool by rain or the nest melts. The transformation takes about 55 days to develop a baby frog from egg.

## there is a popular belief in South India. They say, if a Common Tree Frog leaps over a childs leg, his legs become thin and weak. Needless to say that its only a belief, there is no scientific base regarding it.