Dancing frogs of Western Ghats among most threatened amphibians globally

The dancing frogs that are endemic to the Western Ghats are the most threatened amphibian genus of India, according to the Wildlife Trust of India, a nature conservation non-profit. The organisation made the analysis based on the second edition of the Global Amphibian Assessment released recently. 

Of the 24 species of the frogs belonging to the Micrixalus genus that were assessed, two were found to be critically endangered and 15 were endangered, the report noted. This makes them the most threatened of all Indo-Malayan genera, Gururaja KV, a batrachologist who contributed to this study, said.

It is also the fifth most threatened genus in the world with 92 per cent of its species in the threatened category, the expert added. 

The dancing frogs that are found near the streams do a unique display to mate. The males stretch up their hind legs one at a time and wave their webbed toes in the air in a rapid motion akin to a dance. This is to attract mates as well as ward off competition, probably preferred because their mating calls are drowned out by the gurgling of the streams. This act is called “foot flagging” and gives the species their name. 

The species was found to prefer habitats in areas with thick canopy cover of at least 70-80 per cent, Madhushri Mudke, a researcher with Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru told environment news website Mongabay. 

Multiple anthropogenic stresses have impacted the population of the dancing frogs, experts noted. 

Micrixalus kottigeharensis (commonly called the Kottigehar Dancing Frog), for instance, is threatened by invasive species like the mosquito fish, land use change, variation in temperature and humidity, extreme weather events such as floods and excess rainfall, infectious diseases, water pollution, light pollution, and infrastructure projects such as dams, according to the story in Mongabay that cited Mudke’s research on the Kottigehar species. 

Frogs are valuable in the food chain and also provide other ecological services. Protecting the natural habitats and preserving their optimal living conditions is thus vital to save the last of these species. 

But globally, their numbers are declining. More than 41% of the amphibian species are threatened with extinction, the latest assessment showed. In India, 139 of the total 426 species were categorised as ‘Critically Endangered’, ‘Endangered’ or ‘Vulnerable’ in the  International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

As many as 64 species of amphibians found in the Western Ghats are on the list of endangered species, WTI noted. 

After the dancing frogs, the Nyctibatrachidae (night frogs) are the most threatened, the organisation said, with 83.9 per cent of its species threatened across the southern states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

“Wildlife Trust of India’s Amphibian Recovery Project in the Munnar Landscape of Kerala is actively working to recover the population of threatened amphibians by addressing the challenges that cause the risk of extinction, threat mitigation through strategically planned conservation action, capacity development and training, advocacy and information sharing implemented by a stakeholder network,” Harikrishnan S, who is leading the project, said in a press statement. 

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