Indirana paramakri

The rocky terrain leaping frog or Suganthagiri leaping frog (Indirana paramakri) is a frog.  It lives in India in the Western Ghat mountains.

Appearance

One adult female frog was about 30.9 mm long from nose to rear end. The skin of the frog's back was red-brown in color. There was a dark black-brown stripe from the nose to the bottom of each eye over the eardrum to the armpit. The eardrum was black-brown in color. Parts fo the mouth had dark brown and cream colored stripes. The front and back legs were red-brown in color with brown marks. Parts of the legs and the sides of the body were gray-brown in color. Her belly was gray with some black-brown spots.

Name

Scientists gave this frog the Latin name paramakri. In the Malayalam language, which many people in Kerala, India speak, para means "rock" and makri means "frog." This is because people see the frog in rocky places.

Home

People have seen this frog near streams on wet rocks or dead leaves on the ground. It lives in areas that people have changed and scientists think it lives in the forest that has never been cut down nearby. People have seen this frog between 823 and 1100 meters above sea level.

Young
This frog lays eggs on wet rocks. The tadpoles live on the rocks. They do not swim in the water. The tadpoles use their strong tails and back legs to move. Their back legs grow in much earlier than those of other frogs' tadpoles do.

Danger

Scientists say this frog is in danger of dying out because it lives in a small place and because this place is changing in ways that make it harder for the frog to live there. Scientists think chemicals meant to kill pests could hurt this frog. They think climate change could kill this frog by making its home too dry.  Sometimes people hurt the frog by stopping landslides: the concrete people use to make roads stronger can fill in the cracks in the rocks where frogs would lay their eggs.

Scientists have seen the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on other frogs in Indirana, but they do not know how much danger this frog is in from the fungus. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis causes the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

The frog's home has at least one protected park in it: Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.

References

Category:Frogs of Asia