Malabar gliding frog
Rhacophorus malabaricus
Glides between trees on webbed feet and lays foam nests on leaves over water.
Photo: Nireekshit, CC BY-SA 4.0Biodiversity · Wildlife
Frogs & reptiles
When the monsoon arrives, the forests behind Honavar fill with the calls of frogs, many of them found nowhere else on Earth. Several were first described by scientists working in the Sharavathi River basin.
47amphibian species in Uttara Kannada
67%of them endemic to the Western Ghats
45species in the Sharavathi River basin
4new frogs described from this landscape
A frog hotspot
An IISc study recorded 47 amphibian species in nine families in Uttara Kannada, 31 of them found only in the Western Ghats. The Sharavathi River basin is the richest part of the district, with 45 species. The swamp forest of Kathalekan alone has 34, 24 of them endemic.
Endangered species recorded here include the Malabar tree toad (Pedostibes tuberculosus) and the Wayanad bush frog (Pseudophilautus wynaadensis).
Frogs and caecilians to know
Leaping frogs
Indirana spp.
Small frogs of wet rocks and leaf litter. Indirana beddomii and I. semipalmata are recorded here.
Photo: iNaturalist user "Kishore", CC BY 4.0
Night frogs
Nyctibatrachus spp.
Stream frogs of the Ghats. Two were named from this landscape (see below).
Photo: Saurabh Kulkarni, Public domain
Caecilians
Ichthyophis spp.
Legless amphibians that live in soil. Ichthyophis beddomei and I. bombayensis are recorded in Uttara Kannada.
Photo: G. Bhatta, CC BY 4.0Dancing frogs
Micrixalus spp.
Males wave their legs to signal over the noise of streams. Micrixalus saxicola is recorded here.
New to science
Mud-packing frog (Nyctibatrachus kumbara, 2014): described from Kathalekan. Its name means 'potter' in Kannada, because the female coats her eggs in mud.
Jog night frog (Nyctibatrachus jog, 2011): named after Jog Falls on the Sharavathi River.
Northern dancing frog (Micrixalus uttaraghati, 2014): one of many dancing frogs described in a major study of the genus.
Blue-eyed bush frog (Philautus neelanethrus, 2007): described from the Sharavathi River basin, now treated as the same species as Raorchestes luteolus.
Reptiles
Surveys of five Myristica swamps found 22 reptiles, including 13 snakes. The Sharavathi LTM sanctuary lists the king cobra and the Indian rock python. Most snakes are harmless and shy. If you see one, step back and let it move away.
King cobra
Ophiophagus hannah
The world's longest venomous snake, which feeds mainly on other snakes. Recorded in the Sharavathi LTM sanctuary.
Photo: Max Tibby, CC0Roads and frogs
A study of roads in the Sharavathi River basin found 144 dead amphibians of 13 species, an average of 40 per km and 55 per km through forest. Drive slowly on forest roads on rainy nights.
The best time to hear and see frogs is the monsoon, from June to September. Go with a local naturalist, use a dim torch, do not handle frogs and keep to paths.
Research behind this page (8)
- Ramachandra T.V., Subash Chandran M.D., Joshi N.V., Gururaja K.V., Sameer Ali & Mukri V.D. (2012). Amphibian diversity and distribution in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka. Sahyadri Conservation Series 18, ENVIS Technical Report 47, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
- Gururaja K.V., Dinesh K.P., Priti H. & Ravikanth G. (2014). Mud-packing frog: a novel breeding behaviour and parental care in a stream dwelling new species of Nyctibatrachus. Zootaxa 3796(1): 33–61.
- Biju S.D. et al. (2011). Nyctibatrachus jog: a night frog named after Jog Falls. AmphibiaWeb species account.
- Biju S.D., Garg S., Gururaja K.V., Shouche Y. & Walujkar S.A. (2014). DNA barcoding reveals unprecedented diversity in dancing frogs of India (Micrixalidae, Micrixalus). Ceylon Journal of Science (Biological Sciences) 43(1): 1–87.
- Gururaja K.V., Aravind N.A., Ali S., Ramachandra T.V., Velavan T.P., Krishnakumar V. & Aggarwal R.K. (2007). A new frog species from the central Western Ghats of India, and its phylogenetic position. Zoological Science 24(5): 525–534.
- Seshadri K.S., Yadav A. & Gururaja K.V. (2009). Road kills of amphibians in different land use areas from Sharavathi river basin, central Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1(11): 549–552.
- Ali S., Subash Chandran M.D. & Ramachandra T.V. Myristica swamps of Uttara Kannada. Sahyadri E-News 23, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
- Ramachandra T.V., Subash Chandran M.D., Joshi N.V. & Shalini Kumar (2012). Conservation of endangered fauna in Sharavathi river basin. ENVIS Technical Report 22, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
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