Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Species Profile: Desert Rain Frog



Hello again, welcome back to animals under threat. Today, we will be covering a species of frog that resides in the sandy beach between the sea and sand dunes of Namibia and South Africa. This little frog in currently under threat from habitat loss and lack of knowledge about its behaviour. Please give a warm welcome to this little guy and his cute war cry, the Desert Rain Frog (Breviceps macrops).


The Desert rain frog is a member of the family Brevicipitidae or “rain frogs” that resided in Eastern and Southern Africa. This species of frog is characterized by its brown/yellow plump body, bulging eyes, short snout and limbs, spade-like feet and webbed toes. Its underside is transparent which the internal organs can be seen (AmphibiaWeb, 2019). The Desert rain frog is a fossorial which means that it has adapted to burrowing and surviving underground and also burying itself in sand dunes with low laying vegetation (IUCN, 2017).
 
Picture of Desert rain frog (above) by Alan Channing and Desert rain frog camouflaged (below) by Amphibianfacts.

This species of frog’s life development is interesting because unlike other frogs which lay eggs and they hatch into tadpoles, Desert rain frogs emerge from their eggs as juvenile frogs (Channing and Wahlberg, 2011). One parent keeps watch over the eggs while they are developing in the burrow. Desert rain frogs look for animal dung at dusk and night to find beetles to feed on (Amphibianfacts, 2019). This species, when threatened make a unique sound as a war cry to scare off rivals or predators. However, this war cry sound is similar to a squeaky toy (AmphibiaWeb). A video below from BBC shows the frog using its war cry.


Desert rain frogs are under threat to loss of habitat as much of the sand dune which they rely is due to coastal opencast diamond mining. Construction of roads, urban development and agricultural uses is also a factor to loss of habitat (IUCN, 2017). Lack of studies on this species has led to problems on a long-term management plan for the frog and its environment.

Next time, we will be covering a species of bear that has a unique diet and is popular in China.

References
Alan Channing & Kirsty Wahlberg (2011) Distribution and conservation status of the desert rain frog Breviceps macrops, African Journal of Herpetology, 60:2, 101-112, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2011.608383


AmphibiaWeb. 2019. <http://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 1 Jul 2019.

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group & South African Frog Re-assessment Group (SA-FRoG) 2017. Breviceps macrops. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T3070A2794989. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T3070A2794989.en. Downloaded on 02 July 2019.

Picture and video references




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