12 New Frog Species Discovered

Many new species of frogs were discovered in India’s Western Ghats Western Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. All the new species are night frogs, which made the research projects more challenging. Six of the new species are already in a highly vulnerable state due to damage to their habitats. “The major threat to amphibians in India is massive habitat loss. Taking any conservation effort for amphibians will indirectly conserve several other important biodiversities of that area,” said one of the researchers. (Source: DNAIndia.com)

The Western Ghats are a huge, biologically diverse forested mountain range where many species of new frogs have been documented by science in recent years. Three of species not new to the scientists, but are actually re-discoveries, meaning they were believed to possibly be extinct because of very few or no sightings for some length of time.

The rediscovered frogs are listed below, with the number of years they had not been seen:

Kempholey Night Frog, 75 years
Coorg Night Frog, 91 years
Forest Night Frog, 75 years

“The conservation of amphibians is extremely vital not only from the amphibians’ point of view but also from the perspective of overall nature conservation,” said Professor SD Biju from Delhi University. (Source: DNAIndia.com) If you haven’t heard his name, you probably will again, because he has been directly involved in the discovery of many amphibians in the Western Ghats. Additionally, he is involved in teaching graduate students about amphibian conservation in his lab.

A huge number of amphibians around the world have been lost due to a very destructive fungus, habitat loss, and alterations made to habitats by climate change.

Image Credit: Professor SD Biju

Read more: Environment, Nature, Nature & Wildlife, Wildlife