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		<title>Mongabay India</title>
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		<link>https://india.mongabay.com/list/amphibians/</link>
		<description>India&#039;s environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:09:04 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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					<title>Study finds urbanisation is reshaping frog communities in the Western Ghats</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-finds-urbanisation-is-reshaping-frog-communities-in-the-western-ghats/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-finds-urbanisation-is-reshaping-frog-communities-in-the-western-ghats/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 15:14:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ananya Singh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urban areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urbanisation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2026/06/18134838/IMG_6079-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=38724</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Karnataka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Frogs, Western Ghats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In India, urbanisation and land-use changes are driving forest loss across biodiversity hotspots, including the Western Ghats which support over 250 amphibian species. A new study based in Udupi, a Tier-2 city at the foothills of the Western Ghats, suggests that urbanisation may not necessarily lead to species loss, but may be reshaping frog communities. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In India, urbanisation and land-use changes are driving forest loss across biodiversity hotspots, including the Western Ghats which support over 250 amphibian species. A new study based in Udupi, a Tier-2 city at the foothills of the Western Ghats, suggests that urbanisation may not necessarily lead to species loss, but may be reshaping frog communities. The study, published in Urban Ecosystems, suggests that urbanisation is altering amphibian communities by filtering out species according to certain traits such as body size, reproduction and habitat use. Species with specialised traits — such as arboreal (tree-dwelling) or fossorial (burrowing) frogs, direct-developing species (that hatch directly as frogs, bypassing the tadpole stage) or those with a larger body size — were associated with less-urbanised habitats farther from the city centre. In contrast, generalist species with more adaptable traits showed greater urban tolerance. “The study’s most novel finding is that urbanisation acts as a trait filter rather than simply a diversity filter,” said Aravind N.A., Senior Fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and the study’s supervising author. While traditional biodiversity assessments may conclude that urbanisation has either little or drastic impact based on species counts, trait-based analyses can reveal how landscape changes restructure amphibian communities, Aravind explained. “This finding is particularly important because it highlights hidden biodiversity changes that may precede measurable species losses,” he added. Although around 40% of amphibian species are threatened with extinction globally, little is known about how amphibian communities respond to urban pressures,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-finds-urbanisation-is-reshaping-frog-communities-in-the-western-ghats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-finds-urbanisation-is-reshaping-frog-communities-in-the-western-ghats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers describe a new fanged frog species that builds mud nests on the forest floor</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/researchers-describe-a-new-fanged-frog-species-that-builds-mud-nests-on-the-forest-floor/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/researchers-describe-a-new-fanged-frog-species-that-builds-mud-nests-on-the-forest-floor/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 15:07:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ananya Singh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[namdapha]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2026/06/09141315/17473eff-f87c-46cc-a59b-a51c2b8ba454-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=38578</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arunachal Pradesh]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Forests, Frogs, New species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In April 2022, as pre-monsoon darkness descended over Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh, a team of researchers winding their way along a forest trail heard an unusual call. “Quaaak&#8230;” To Abhijit Das, scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), it sounded like a frog calling from underground. He and his team began searching beneath [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In April 2022, as pre-monsoon darkness descended over Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh, a team of researchers winding their way along a forest trail heard an unusual call. “Quaaak&#8230;” To Abhijit Das, scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), it sounded like a frog calling from underground. He and his team began searching beneath the thick layer of leaves covering the forest floor. “We are exactly on the call. But when we start moving the leaf litter, we don’t find it,” said Das. “The frog stops calling.” A year later, two of Das’ students, N.V. Rajiv and Sourav Dutta, lay on the ground deep within the rainforest, slowly picking up one leaf at a time as they followed the frog’s distinctive sound. Finally, they spotted the calling male hidden in a depression in the mud under leaf litter. The team would later describe this as a new species of fanged frog, Limnonectes motijheel, in their paper published in Zootaxa in April 2026. An adult male specimen of the newly-described species, Limnonectes motijheel, collected from Kamala Valley in Namdapha Tiger Reserve in May 2022. The males of this species are larger than the females and are named for the tooth-like projections on their lower jaw. Image by Abhijit Das. Detailed morphological and genetic analysis of specimens collected during surveys showed that this small, brown frog belongs to the Limnonectes genus, a group of fanged frogs whose males possess tooth-like projections on their lower jaw, giving them their name. “This is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/researchers-describe-a-new-fanged-frog-species-that-builds-mud-nests-on-the-forest-floor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/researchers-describe-a-new-fanged-frog-species-that-builds-mud-nests-on-the-forest-floor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photo tourism threatens rare galaxy frog population</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/01/photo-tourism-threatens-rare-galaxy-frog-population/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/01/photo-tourism-threatens-rare-galaxy-frog-population/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2026 12:27:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[human encroachment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photography]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2026/01/02111149/Galaxy-frog-in-the-Western-Ghats-India-with-photo-taken-by-conservationist-Rajkumar-K-P-as-part-of-conservation-project-2-c-Rajkumar-K-P-ZSL-.jpg-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=36319</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kerala]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Endangered species, Extinction, Frogs, Photos, Protected Areas, Tourism, Western Ghats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Seven threatened galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus) are gone from a research site in the Western Ghats in Kerala after photographers seeking images of the rare, star-patterned amphibians destroyed their delicate forest floor habitat, according to a short article published in Herpetology Notes. Researchers found the seven tiny frogs beneath rotting logs at the site in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Seven threatened galaxy frogs (Melanobatrachus indicus) are gone from a research site in the Western Ghats in Kerala after photographers seeking images of the rare, star-patterned amphibians destroyed their delicate forest floor habitat, according to a short article published in Herpetology Notes. Researchers found the seven tiny frogs beneath rotting logs at the site in March 2020. Upon returning in August 2021, the team discovered that the 25 logs had been overturned, the surrounding vegetation was trampled, and all seven frogs were gone. An anonymous informant reported that multiple photographer groups had visited the site between June 2020 and April 2021. According to the informant’s account, photographers turned over logs to find the frogs, used high-intensity flash photography and handled multiple individuals without gloves — practices that can cause dehydration and stress to the frogs as well as risk disease transmission. Groups of four to six photographers would each photograph the same individuals, with sessions lasting approximately four hours. The informant reported that two small frogs died during photography sessions, though researchers could not verify this claim. The galaxy frog measures just 2-3.5 centimetres and lives only in the southern Western Ghats, where it nestles under logs and stones on the forest floor at elevations above 900 metres. Galaxy frog in the Western Ghats, India. Image by conservationist Rajkumar K.P./ZSL. “Named after their stunning resemblance to images of space, these beautiful yet rare frogs are unlike anything else on our tiny corner of the universe,” said K.P. Rajkumar, lead author&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/01/photo-tourism-threatens-rare-galaxy-frog-population/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/01/photo-tourism-threatens-rare-galaxy-frog-population/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>What expanding cities are doing to frogs and toads</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/12/what-expanding-cities-are-doing-to-frogs-and-toads/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/12/what-expanding-cities-are-doing-to-frogs-and-toads/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2025 16:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aisiri Amin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Priyanka Shankar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urban areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urban biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Urban forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[urbanisation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/12/16112531/Painted-balloon-frog-at-Mallathalli-Kere-Credit-Seshadri-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=36077</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Karnataka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Ecology, Frogs, Western Ghats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1999, researcher S. Karthikeyan documented the fauna of Bengaluru, which included a list of 16 species of frogs. For a long time, this was the only documentation of the city&#8217;s anurans (frogs and toads) that people referred to. Now, over 25 years later, a comprehensive, multi-scale assessment of anurans in Bengaluru has documented 11 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1999, researcher S. Karthikeyan documented the fauna of Bengaluru, which included a list of 16 species of frogs. For a long time, this was the only documentation of the city&#8217;s anurans (frogs and toads) that people referred to. Now, over 25 years later, a comprehensive, multi-scale assessment of anurans in Bengaluru has documented 11 species. Anura is an order of amphibians comprising frogs and toads. Anura is an order of amphibians comprising frogs and toads. While urbanisation is rapidly changing landscapes, little is known about its impact on smaller, less charismatic species such as anurans. “The process of urbanisation affecting biodiversity is well-known. There is a change in the ecological community, which may not always be a decline. But we lack such information about amphibians, especially from the Global South,” says Seshadri K. S., a Bengaluru-based researcher and lead author of the study, with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). It’s estimated that more than half of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, which makes documentation of urbanisation’s different impact on different species even more urgent, he adds. There is a clear data gap staring people in the face, Seshadri says. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he collaborated with the study authors and decided to take action. “We wanted to go beyond a checklist of Bengaluru and do a systematic study so that there is baseline data that can support further research and help track urbanisation’s impact on anurans,” he says. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/12/what-expanding-cities-are-doing-to-frogs-and-toads/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/12/what-expanding-cities-are-doing-to-frogs-and-toads/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Male toads get a monsoon makeover to stand out from the crowd</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/10/male-toads-get-a-monsoon-makeover-to-stand-out-from-the-crowd/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/10/male-toads-get-a-monsoon-makeover-to-stand-out-from-the-crowd/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 13:52:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[breeding grounds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toads]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/10/23120815/06_brown-female-and-yellow-male-in-amplexus-c-Stuckler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=35158</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Karnataka and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Ecology, Environment, Monsoons, Western Ghats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the first monsoon rains hit the Indian subcontinent, temporary rain pools transform into a stage for the Asian common toad to meet and breed. Within hours, hundreds of toads converge to breeding sites and form “explosive breeding aggregations”, where males compete with each other and scramble for females. These toads are usually a dull [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the first monsoon rains hit the Indian subcontinent, temporary rain pools transform into a stage for the Asian common toad to meet and breed. Within hours, hundreds of toads converge to breeding sites and form “explosive breeding aggregations”, where males compete with each other and scramble for females. These toads are usually a dull brown. For just the breeding period, males decide to put up bright neon signs: they turn golden yellow. Scientists call this “dynamic sexual dichromatism” — when one sex changes colour, temporarily, to signal readiness to mate. Every monsoon, male Asian common toads temporarily don their bright breeding hue in a rain pool, as they look for females. Image by Susanne Stückler and Doris Preininger. A group of researchers decided to decode this behaviour from a toad’s perspective. To find out how well the toads themselves recognise these colour signals, researchers Susanne Stückler and Doris Preininger teamed up with K.V. Gururaja  and Priti Hebbar in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Karnataka. Armed with a spectrometer, they recorded the skin colours of toads gathered at a rock pool: males in amplexus, a mating position, were yellow to the human eye; non-mated males were both yellow and brown; and females were all brown in colour. The data were then fed into a computer model that simulated toad vision, revealing how distinctly the yellow of breeding males would stand out to other toads. They found that the toad vision simulator could easily detect the contrast between yellow&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/10/male-toads-get-a-monsoon-makeover-to-stand-out-from-the-crowd/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Listening to frogs can offer clues to their decline [Commentary]</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/05/listening-to-frogs-can-offer-clues-to-their-decline-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/05/listening-to-frogs-can-offer-clues-to-their-decline-commentary/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2025 14:15:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[R.J. Ranjit Daniels]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Priyanka Shankar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bioacoustics]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/05/05130103/Jerdons_Bullfrog_Hoplobatrachus_crassus_from_Coochbehar_West_Bengal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=32463</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Ecology, Forests, Frogs, and Western Ghats]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians are vertebrate animals that need both terrestrial and aquatic habitats for their survival, reproduction and metamorphosis. Traditionally, amphibians have been broadly categorised as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. Frogs, toads and all amphibians whose adults have four legs, lack a tail and can stay out of water, are called anurans. But there are also legless [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians are vertebrate animals that need both terrestrial and aquatic habitats for their survival, reproduction and metamorphosis. Traditionally, amphibians have been broadly categorised as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. Frogs, toads and all amphibians whose adults have four legs, lack a tail and can stay out of water, are called anurans. But there are also legless amphibians called caecilians. However, the binary division of anurans as frogs and toads alone, has led to a lot of confusion as there are many toad-like frogs and frog-like toads and a few that may not qualify as either. The simplistic delineation of anurans as frogs or toads is based on the skin and development of the hind legs in adults. Generally, frogs have smooth skins that are moist and slimy and have well-built hindlegs that enable them to leap high and far. Toads, on the other hand, have dry and coarse skin and weak hindlegs that make them rather slow-moving anurans incapable of long and high leaps. Strictly speaking, while toads belong to just one family of anurans, Bufonidae, all other anurans are frogs. Amphibians are diverse There are close to 9,000 species of amphibians known in the world today. Around 300 are salamanders and newts (tailed amphibians), and 180 are caecilians – legless and burrowing, wormlike amphibians. The rest are anurans. Salamanders and newts are the only amphibians that have diversified in the temperate regions. Most species of anurans and all caecilians are tropical. Four hundred species of amphibians are known in India,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/05/listening-to-frogs-can-offer-clues-to-their-decline-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Retracing the route of a century-old biodiversity expedition</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/04/retracing-the-route-of-a-century-old-biodiversity-expedition/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2025/04/retracing-the-route-of-a-century-old-biodiversity-expedition/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Apr 2025 15:59:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Simrin Sirur]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Priyanka Shankar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[butterflies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[species]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2025/04/03112731/DSC00215-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=32050</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species and Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arunachal Pradesh]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Birds, Himalayas, Insects, Mountains, New species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On July 16, 1912, the British Army published a notification announcing the success of its expedition into the heart of present-day Arunachal Pradesh. The upper reaches of the region had been a fortress for colonial forces until then, and the completion of the exercise was announced with much celebration. “Although it proved impossible to explore [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On July 16, 1912, the British Army published a notification announcing the success of its expedition into the heart of present-day Arunachal Pradesh. The upper reaches of the region had been a fortress for colonial forces until then, and the completion of the exercise was announced with much celebration. “Although it proved impossible to explore the valley of the Dihang (present-day Siang Valley), where it breaks through the main mountain range on the confines of Thibet… in spite of great physical difficulties the main objects of the expedition have been accomplished,” the notification reads. The expedition was a punitive mission prompted by the murder of a British officer, Noel Williamson, by the tribes living in the Siang valley, referred to as the “Abors” (translating to “unruly”). Williamson arrived in the village of Komsing expecting a night’s stay but was killed for humiliating the village head on another occasion. To avenge Williamson’s death, British forces decided to invade the valley with two objectives in mind: to gather as much information about the region as possible, and to “punish” those culpable in his murder. An almost-forgotten legacy of this brutal mission was an unusual catalogue of animals, plants, insects, and birds found in the valley. Little was known about the catalogue, which surfaced decades later while filmmaker Sandesh Kadur was researching for his book, Himalaya: Mountains of Life. “I found that many species were named and discovered around 1911 and 1913, and I thought, what was going on a hundred years ago?”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2025/04/retracing-the-route-of-a-century-old-biodiversity-expedition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farms, fields threaten frogs in lateritic plateaus</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/12/farms-fields-threaten-frogs-in-lateritic-plateaus/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/12/farms-fields-threaten-frogs-in-lateritic-plateaus/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2024 13:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Arathi Menon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amphibian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[landuse change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paddy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plateaus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threat]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2024/12/18201103/Hydrophylax_bahuvistara-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=30778</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature-based Solutions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Maharashtra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Amphibians, Biodiversity, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A study finds that rapid changes in land use, particularly agriculture, significantly impact amphibian diversity found in the lateritic plateaus of Maharashtra&#8217;s northern Western Ghats due to changes in microhabitats. The study investigates how expansion of agriculture and agroforestry plantations impact amphibian diversity and abundance across natural plateaus, paddy fields, and mango and cashew orchards [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A study finds that rapid changes in land use, particularly agriculture, significantly impact amphibian diversity found in the lateritic plateaus of Maharashtra&#8217;s northern Western Ghats due to changes in microhabitats. The study investigates how expansion of agriculture and agroforestry plantations impact amphibian diversity and abundance across natural plateaus, paddy fields, and mango and cashew orchards in the Ratnagiri region of the state. Low-elevation lateritic plateaus in the northern Western Ghats are rock outcrop ecosystems that support endemic biodiversity. As most of these plateaus are outside protected areas and are classified as wastelands, they are increasingly being lost to human activities, especially agriculture. The team of researchers from the Nature Conservation Foundation and the Bombay Environmental Action Group led by Jithin Vijayan found that amphibian diversity was lowest in paddy fields, while abundance was lowest in orchards, compared to the relatively undisturbed plateaus. The lateritic plateaus of Ratnagiri are being rapidly converted to cashew and mango orchards, significantly impacting biodiversity. Image by Jithin Vijayan. “We examined how changes in habitat or microhabitat affect amphibians, primarily frogs,” Vijayan informs Mongabay India. “We found that both mango and cashew orchards, as well as paddy fields, impact amphibians, but in very different ways. This study also underscores the need for land-use impact assessments at both the community and species levels.” The research used community-level metrics (such as species richness and composition) alongside species-level analyses to understand the differential impacts of land use. Vijayan explains that focusing only on community-level responses, such as those of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2024/12/farms-fields-threaten-frogs-in-lateritic-plateaus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>The curious case of a frog and a fungus</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/05/the-curious-case-of-a-frog-and-a-fungus/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/05/the-curious-case-of-a-frog-and-a-fungus/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 May 2024 14:57:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Arathi Menon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Arathimenon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amphibians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[herping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mushroom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2024/05/01094720/Frog-Mushroom-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=27615</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Frogs, Research, and Western Ghats]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It was meant to be just another monsoon night of herping in the wild for five friends passionate about herpetology. A rainstorm was brewing in the foothills of the Kudremukh ranges of the Western Ghats; the air resounded with the chorus of Rao’s golden-backed frogs, a species endemic to southern India. As Lohit Y.T, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It was meant to be just another monsoon night of herping in the wild for five friends passionate about herpetology. A rainstorm was brewing in the foothills of the Kudremukh ranges of the Western Ghats; the air resounded with the chorus of Rao’s golden-backed frogs, a species endemic to southern India. As Lohit Y.T, a rivers and wetlands specialist with WWF India, prepared to retreat with his companions before the showers, something extraordinary caught his attention, causing the team to pause and linger. Resting on a nearby twig, one of the frogs, Rao’s intermediate golden-backed frog (Hylarana intermedia), appeared to be carrying something on its side, which upon closer look, revealed itself to be an outgrowth of a mushroom. Lohit recounts the experience from June 2023 and shares, “We were exploring various habitats near Mala village in Udupi in Karnataka, where we knew there was a pond. It was a casual night search for different herpetofauna and with the monsoon in full swing, the frogs, particularly Rao’s golden-backed frogs, were quite active.” Only one frog displayed the outgrowth, he told Mongabay-India. As the team wasn’t equipped for a sample collection, they had to let the animal go. Subsequently, Lohit shared this unusual finding with the scientific community. While the herpetologists could immediately identify the frog species carrying the mushroom as H. intermedia, the identification of the mushroom was done on citizen science platforms such as India Biodiversity Portal and iNaturalist, as Mycena or the bonnet mushroom. &#8220;Fungi are known to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2024/05/the-curious-case-of-a-frog-and-a-fungus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Named after their habitats, three new frogs add to Arunachal’s biodiversity</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/named-after-their-habitats-three-new-frogs-add-to-arunachals-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/named-after-their-habitats-three-new-frogs-add-to-arunachals-biodiversity/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jan 2024 12:38:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Arathi Menon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Arathimenon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amphibian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[arunachal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brooks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discovery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hotspot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[namdapha]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[noa-dihing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[patkai hills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[river]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[science]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/12/31135559/Patkai-Green-Tree-Frog-Gracixalus-patkaiensis-scaled-e1704018240443-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=25905</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arunachal Pradesh and India]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Impacts of Climate Change, New species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Adding to the large repertoire of amphibian species found in the biodiversity hotspots in India are three new-to-science frog species discovered from the Namdapha-Kamlang landscape of Arunachal Pradesh. These discoveries are significant for two different reasons: the unique landscape where they were spotted and the new biological classification they create. According to the lead researcher [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Adding to the large repertoire of amphibian species found in the biodiversity hotspots in India are three new-to-science frog species discovered from the Namdapha-Kamlang landscape of Arunachal Pradesh. These discoveries are significant for two different reasons: the unique landscape where they were spotted and the new biological classification they create. According to the lead researcher Abhijit Das of the Wildlife Institute of India, the discoveries underscore the distinction of Namdapha National Park as a tiger reserve with high biodiversity in the country. Tucked between Myanmar and India, Namdapha is considered the northernmost limit of the tropical rainforest in the world. Another specialty of the landscape, according to Das, is its elevational diversity gradient “starting from 100 metres and going up to 5000 metres that says a lot about the biodiversity of the region”. “Our initial observations show a dominant influence of southeast Asian faunal elements in the lower elevations and largely Himalayan ones in the upper reaches. However, more surveys are needed to ascertain these faunal boundaries,” he said. Namdapha region, located on the border, faces many anthropogenic pressures that pose conservation challenges, said Das.  Kamlang tiger reserve. Three new-to-science frog species were discovered recently from the Namdapha-Kamlang landscape of Arunachal Pradesh. Photo by Abhijit Das. Another reason why these discoveries are special is because those are not just three new species but three new genera — a taxonomic category comprising species exhibiting similar characteristics — recorded from India. Das described the new frogs as rare with distinct appearances and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2024/01/named-after-their-habitats-three-new-frogs-add-to-arunachals-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Genetic insights of the Kempholey night frog offer better conservation strategies</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/genetic-insights-of-the-kempholey-night-frog-offer-better-conservation-strategies/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/genetic-insights-of-the-kempholey-night-frog-offer-better-conservation-strategies/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2023 13:48:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Neha Jain]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Western Ghats]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/11/30103438/N.kempholeyensis-with-eggs-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=25493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species and Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Conservation, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study in the Western Ghats has found that, contrary to popular belief, river drainage boundaries were not strong barriers to the movement of aquatic Kempholey night frog. Instead, genetic variation among different species was mainly shaped by the distance between them. The Kempholey night frog, endemic to the Western Ghats, prefers headwater habitats [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study in the Western Ghats has found that, contrary to popular belief, river drainage boundaries were not strong barriers to the movement of aquatic Kempholey night frog. Instead, genetic variation among different species was mainly shaped by the distance between them. The Kempholey night frog, endemic to the Western Ghats, prefers headwater habitats and has a limited ability to disperse, which influenced the genetic differentiation of the frog, at a localised level, the study showed. Little is known about the genetic diversity of freshwater frog species living in the Western Ghats. Only five studies so far have assessed fine-scale genetic variation in Indian amphibians. For aquatic or stream-dependent species, it was believed that river basins act as barriers and influence genetic variation. This study examines the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of the widespread freshwater Kempholey night frog (Nyctibatrachus kempholeyensis) and finds that river basins were only minor barriers. These findings will aid in the conservation of the species. “The results of this study also have implications for inter-river basin water transfers. Such methods can change the community structure of aquatic biota, introduce exotic species, and can also erode the genetic integrity of differentiated populations,” says Priti Hebbar, Assistant Professor at the Manipal Insititute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Bengaluru, who led the study. Consequently, Hebbar suggests avoiding linking river basins for water transfers. A river basin is comprised of multiple stream orders, which are designated as first-order, second-order and so on, explains Hebbar. They join to form&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/11/genetic-insights-of-the-kempholey-night-frog-offer-better-conservation-strategies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Habitat loss due to tourism in the Western Ghats pushes endangered frogs to the edge</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/06/habitat-loss-due-to-tourism-in-the-western-ghats-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/06/habitat-loss-due-to-tourism-in-the-western-ghats-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2023 15:25:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/06/06135825/original-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=23059</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond Protected Areas]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Endangered species, Frogs, Habitat Fragmentation, Habitat Loss, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The picturesque Munnar in Kerala, with its lush green tea gardens carpet rolling hills, sits at the south of biodiversity hotspot that is the Western Ghats. Coffee and cardamom plantations intersperse the tea gardens, giving this lofty range the name Cardamom Hills. Groves of eucalyptus, black wattle and acacia — trees grown for firewood and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The picturesque Munnar in Kerala, with its lush green tea gardens carpet rolling hills, sits at the south of biodiversity hotspot that is the Western Ghats. Coffee and cardamom plantations intersperse the tea gardens, giving this lofty range the name Cardamom Hills. Groves of eucalyptus, black wattle and acacia — trees grown for firewood and timber — are peppered within these plantations. Patches of shola forests — stunted tropical montane forests which once covered all these hills — lie scattered across the landscape as remnants of the past. Today, forests blanket just over half of Idukki, the district where Munnar is located, and are mostly found inside protected areas, including Eravikulam National Park, Anamudi Shola National Park, and Periyar National Park. The cloud-kissed hills and verdant valleys of idyllic Munnar beckon many wanderlusts with love for nature. But as tourism booms in the town and around, roads, electric lines and other infrastructure have mushroomed, and forested land is increasingly encroached upon to make way for more resorts and plantations. While protected areas provide a safe haven to charismatic animals, like the elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) that often wander into tea plantations or the endemic Nilgiri tahrs (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), tiny frogs and toads — often inconspicuous but highly diverse — are at risk of being lost in the shuffle. “Kerala is home to more than 200 species of amphibians, including frogs, toads as well as caecilians,” herpetologist Sandeep Das, who has studied the taxonomy and ecology of many amphibian species in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/06/habitat-loss-due-to-tourism-in-the-western-ghats-pushes-endangered-frogs-to-the-edge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Why the dancing frog may no longer be able to shake a leg</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/04/why-the-dancing-frog-may-no-longer-be-able-to-shake-a-leg/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2023/04/why-the-dancing-frog-may-no-longer-be-able-to-shake-a-leg/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2023 17:31:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deepa Padmanabhan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/04/13131459/2-male-dancing-frogs--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=22452</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians and Reptiles]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you peer carefully at rocks in perennial streams in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, you might see a tiny frog tapping its feet and kicking its hind legs in the air in an attempt to attract a mate. At the width of three centimetres, the Kottigehar dancing frog (Micrixalus kottigeharensis) can fit into your [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you peer carefully at rocks in perennial streams in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, you might see a tiny frog tapping its feet and kicking its hind legs in the air in an attempt to attract a mate. At the width of three centimetres, the Kottigehar dancing frog (Micrixalus kottigeharensis) can fit into your palm and is an evolutionary distinct and globally endangered (EDGE) species. Micrixalidae is one of the oldest families of frogs in the Western Ghats, and is known to have evolved  more than 60 million years ago and diversified five million years ago. Foot-flagging by a dancing frog. Photo by Madhushri Mudke for the dancing frog project of India. The genus, Micrixalus, commonly known as “dancing frogs”, represents an ancient lineage and certain studies have indicated that the lineage has no close living relatives. Madhushri Mudke, a researcher who studies the Kottigehar dancing frog species at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru, said, “If they go extinct, there is no other species close to them, so they die with the evolutionary history of millions of years. They are also endangered because their distribution is limited in the world.” She notes that the species has a “unparalleled evolutionary history”. While the Micrixalus lineage existed as a solitary branch without substantially diverging, it is likely that multiple oﬀshoot lineages eventually went extinct, indicates a 2003 study of ancient frog lineages in the Indian subcontinent. K.V. Gururaja, a behaviour ecologist at the Srishti Manipal Institute&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2023/04/why-the-dancing-frog-may-no-longer-be-able-to-shake-a-leg/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Leatherback turtles under threat as government considers ‘development’ in Little Andaman</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2021/04/leatherback-turtles-under-threat-as-government-considers-development-in-little-andamans/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2021/04/leatherback-turtles-under-threat-as-government-considers-development-in-little-andamans/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Apr 2021 10:38:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rosamma Thomas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2021/04/01121907/06Pic-credit-Adhith-Swaminathan-scaled-e1617260501678-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=13767</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Islands, and Tribes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A 58-page, undated “vision document” for the “sustainable development” of the Little Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal was produced by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, a think tank of the Government of India. The document, not in the public domain but reviewed by Mongabay-India, states that “ecological and environmental constraints” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A 58-page, undated “vision document” for the “sustainable development” of the Little Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal was produced by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, a think tank of the Government of India. The document, not in the public domain but reviewed by Mongabay-India, states that “ecological and environmental constraints” have meant that the strategic and economic potential of the island, about 675 sq km in area, were never developed to their full potential; 95% of the island is under forest cover. There is need to “open” Little Andaman, which is “as big as Singapore” and “release the area for deployment of strategic assets”, the document states. Comparison is also drawn with tourist destinations like Bali and Phuket. Underlining the Singapore comparison, the vision document says that while the population density of the Little Andaman is 47 people per sq km, it is 7,615 per sq km in Singapore. “What is stopping us from developing these into veritable jewels for the country?” asks the document. However, previous research and experts currently note that the development of the Little Andaman Island will pose a threat to nesting sites of the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). One of seven species of marine turtles globally, of which five are found in Indian waters, the leatherback is the only sea turtle that lacks a bony shell and has a leather-like, flexible carapace; that is what gives it its name. The leatherback is the largest of all living turtles, among the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2021/04/leatherback-turtles-under-threat-as-government-considers-development-in-little-andamans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Frog discovered in the Eastern Ghats also found in the Western Ghats, more than 1000 km away</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/frog-discovered-in-the-eastern-ghats-also-found-in-the-western-ghats-more-than-1000-km-away/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/frog-discovered-in-the-eastern-ghats-also-found-in-the-western-ghats-more-than-1000-km-away/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2020 13:57:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aathira Perinchery]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/10/19150149/2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=11882</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Eastern Ghats, Karnataka, and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, and Frogs]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the last decade alone, more than 100 frog species new to science have been discovered in India. One of them is the Kalinga cricket frog (Minervarya kalinga), a plain-looking brown amphibian that scientists discovered two years ago. What was special was that they had spotted it in the northern tracts of the Eastern Ghats, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Over the last decade alone, more than 100 frog species new to science have been discovered in India. One of them is the Kalinga cricket frog (Minervarya kalinga), a plain-looking brown amphibian that scientists discovered two years ago. What was special was that they had spotted it in the northern tracts of the Eastern Ghats, a hill range that has not seen as many frog discoveries as its western counterpart has. Now the frog has popped up in the Western Ghats too, in Karnataka&#8217;s Uttara Kannada district. That&#8217;s more than 1,000 kilometres away from its eastern range. This proves that the Kalinga cricket frog may indeed be distributed across a larger area than what earlier, possibly incomplete surveys show. Since these frogs are also slightly larger than their eastern relatives, this could signify a new and morphologically distinct &#8216;population&#8217; of frogs, postulate the scientists who made the discovery. The cricket frogs of Asia Size, colour and shape: looks, in general, are one of the many means to identify a frog. Especially so in the case of Asia&#8217;s cricket frogs. Cricket frogs (genus Fejervarya/ Minervarya) are found across large parts of Asia, including India. They were initially confused for pond frogs and placed in the genus Rana. A genus is a unit of classification containing organisms that share not only some common traits but also a common ancestor; it can contain several species. In 1915, a naturalist found that some of these frogs in east India, Bangladesh and adjoining Asian countries,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/frog-discovered-in-the-eastern-ghats-also-found-in-the-western-ghats-more-than-1000-km-away/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/frog-discovered-in-the-eastern-ghats-also-found-in-the-western-ghats-more-than-1000-km-away/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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					<title>A new addition to the Walkerana genus</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/a-new-addition-to-the-walkerana-genus/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/a-new-addition-to-the-walkerana-genus/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2020 12:50:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amphibians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New species]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/03/12102851/muduga-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=8996</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kerala and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Frogs, New species, Research, and Western Ghats]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A newly discovered species of frog, endemic to the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats, is the first new addition to the genus Walkerana in more than a century. There are three previously known Walkerana species are W. leptodactyla, W. diplosticta and W. phrynoderma. The newly discovered Muduga leaping frog, Walkerana muduga, is now the fourth member of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A newly discovered species of frog, endemic to the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats, is the first new addition to the genus Walkerana in more than a century. There are three previously known Walkerana species are W. leptodactyla, W. diplosticta and W. phrynoderma. The newly discovered Muduga leaping frog, Walkerana muduga, is now the fourth member of the genus. A specimen of the frog was collected by Dr. S. P. Vijayakumar of the Indian Institute of Science and his team in 2016. A high elevation species, Walkerana muduga was found in the Elivalmalai hill range of the Western Ghats at an altitude of 1,544 meters (about 5,065 feet) above sea level. The species was described to science in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa. “After a span of 137 years, we have discovered a new frog species within the genus Walkerana,” K. P. Dinesh, a scientist at the Zoological Survey of India and lead author of the paper describing the new species, said in a statement. “The last few species descriptions within this genus date to 1876 and 1882.” The Western Ghats escarpment harbors around 250 species of amphibians, more than 90% of which are endemic to the region. Until now, all of the known Walkerana species were found south of the Palghat Gap, a 30-kilometer-wide valley in the Western Ghats that acts as a major biogeographic barrier. Unlike its closest relatives, however, the Muduga leaping frog was found north of the Palghat Gap. “As a taxonomist, it is interesting to note&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/a-new-addition-to-the-walkerana-genus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/a-new-addition-to-the-walkerana-genus/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Bringing freshwater turtles out of their shells and into the spotlight</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/bringing-freshwater-turtles-out-of-their-shells-and-into-the-spotlight/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/bringing-freshwater-turtles-out-of-their-shells-and-into-the-spotlight/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2020 12:02:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amphibians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freshwater]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turtle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife trafficking]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/03/06001451/Peacock-Softshell-Turtle_Kaziranga_Shantanu-Joshi-9-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=8921</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species and Environment and Her]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[India]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Citizen science, Conservation, Reptiles, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For believers of Vastu Shastra and Feng Shui, the kachua (turtles or tortoises) attracts good fortune. Decorative items, rings and pendants depicting these creatures are common talismans and some homes even keep them live as pets, for good luck. Sneha Dharwadkar however, is sceptical. “This is wrong. Over 50 percent of freshwater turtle species are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[For believers of Vastu Shastra and Feng Shui, the kachua (turtles or tortoises) attracts good fortune. Decorative items, rings and pendants depicting these creatures are common talismans and some homes even keep them live as pets, for good luck. Sneha Dharwadkar however, is sceptical. “This is wrong. Over 50 percent of freshwater turtle species are threatened. If they were indeed lucky, they wouldn’t be in this state!” says the herpetologist and conservation educator from Gujarat with experience in conservation, rescue and rehabilitation of freshwater turtles and tortoises. Common myths like these as well as lack of sufficient academic research and data on freshwater turtles and tortoises of India, spurred Dharwadkar and another turtle researcher, Anuja Mital, to take action and bring their favourite creatures into the spotlight. The two women founded the Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of India (FTTI), a collective working to bring these species out of their metaphorical shells. “FTTI started out last year as an education and awareness project which has slowly gone onto becoming both, a field-based and education-based conservation project,” said Dharwadkar who noticed a severe lack of awareness around freshwater turtles and tortoises, even among her herpetologist counterparts. “Both Anuja and me are turtle biologists and people used to often send us requests to identify turtles. We realised that even herpetologists who have been in the field of herpetofauna, studying reptiles and amphibians, were not aware of many freshwater turtle and tortoise species. Many found it difficult to identify even common turtles,” she told&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/bringing-freshwater-turtles-out-of-their-shells-and-into-the-spotlight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/03/bringing-freshwater-turtles-out-of-their-shells-and-into-the-spotlight/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>New frog species from unexplored Jharkhand and Bihar brings cheer</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/09/new-frog-species-from-unexplored-jharkhand-and-bihar-brings-cheer/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/09/new-frog-species-from-unexplored-jharkhand-and-bihar-brings-cheer/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2019 11:34:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[GBSNP Varma]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2019/09/10124523/Magadha-Burrowing-Frog2_c-Vishal-Kumar-Prasad-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=6719</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[India's Iconic Landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bihar, Eastern Ghats, and Jharkhand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Endemic species, Frogs, and New species]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new species of small burrowing frog has been discovered from the Chota Nagpur plateau in Jharkhand. Scientists have named it ‘Magadha Burrowing Frog,’ (Sphaerotheca magadha) after the ancient kingdom of Magadha in the southern Bihar. Biologists have described the species using an integrated taxonomic approach that combines molecular analysis, morphology, phylogeny and biogeographic significance of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new species of small burrowing frog has been discovered from the Chota Nagpur plateau in Jharkhand. Scientists have named it ‘Magadha Burrowing Frog,’ (Sphaerotheca magadha) after the ancient kingdom of Magadha in the southern Bihar. Biologists have described the species using an integrated taxonomic approach that combines molecular analysis, morphology, phylogeny and biogeographic significance of the region. Since the species comes from farm fields, there is a need for more explorations of agro-ecosystems, and not just forests. This is the first frog discovery from Jharkhand and Bihar in the history of zoological findings, as per literature reviews including a comprehensive online database. A serendipitous discovery In June 2015, Vishal Kumar Prasad, the lead author and a researcher with Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, was at his home town in Joungi-Nawadih village of Koderma district of Jharkhand. Rains had lashed the place for sometime in the night, and he wanted to take a walk. As he started walking along a road near an agricultural field,  he heard a sound like peee.. peee..peee.. “I had not heard that kind of call,” he said. Curious, he traced the call with a small torch he was carrying. The light funnelled into darkness and he saw the vocal sac of a tiny frog. “I was filled with excitement and curiosity as this tiny frog looked very different from other burrowing frogs (of Sphaerotheca genus),&#8221; said Prasad. &#8220;After checking more individuals in followings nights surveys, I had a gut feeling that it’s definitely a new species.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2019/09/new-frog-species-from-unexplored-jharkhand-and-bihar-brings-cheer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>New frog species discovered in biodiversity-rich Western Ghats</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/new-frog-species-discovered-in-biodiversity-rich-western-ghats/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/new-frog-species-discovered-in-biodiversity-rich-western-ghats/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2019 11:44:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[T. V. Padma]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2019/03/18101533/frog4campnight2_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=4499</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Frogs, New species, and Western Ghats]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One more new frog species has been spotted in the Western Ghats of India, reconfirming the region’s status as home to one of the richest assemblage of frogs in the world. The scientists have named the frog Astrobatrachus kurichiyana. Astrobatrachus is in recognition of its starry spots and kurichiyana in honour of the ‘Kurichiya’ indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One more new frog species has been spotted in the Western Ghats of India, reconfirming the region’s status as home to one of the richest assemblage of frogs in the world. The scientists have named the frog Astrobatrachus kurichiyana. Astrobatrachus is in recognition of its starry spots and kurichiyana in honour of the ‘Kurichiya’ indigenous community of Wayanad in Kerala, where the scientists stumbled upon this new species, a release from Indian Institute of Science, whose scientists were part of the team, says. As of now, this species is known only from the Kurchiyarmala peak, an isolated hill range located on the western edge of Wayanad plateau in the south-central region of the Western Ghats’ steep slope. Details of the new frog, a secretive being that remains below leaf litters under the thick tree canopy of the shola forests in the region, are published by an international team from India and U.S. in the latest issue of PeerJ. The Western Ghats, one of India’s richest biodiversity hotspots, with at least three endemic frog families, have been throwing up several new frog species and even new genera, in the last decade. But it is rare that scientists additionally report an entire new sub-family of frogs, as has happened with this new frog. Molecular analysis by the scientists suggests that the most recent common ancestor of this new species would have diversified around 60 to 70 million years ago. A. kurichiyana’s constellation-like speckles are tinged with blue, an uncommon colour on frogs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/new-frog-species-discovered-in-biodiversity-rich-western-ghats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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					<title>World Wildlife Day: 6 stories to know more about life below India&#8217;s water bodies</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/world-wildlife-day-6-stories-to-know-more-about-life-below-indias-water-bodies/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/world-wildlife-day-6-stories-to-know-more-about-life-below-indias-water-bodies/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2019 10:52:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kartik Chandramouli]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fishes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Water bodies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wetlands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[world wildlife day]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2019/02/28132105/World-Wildlife-Day-Marine-Dolphin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=4322</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Fish, Water, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The ocean has sustained human civilisation for a long time. A source of food, livelihood and recreation, the waters that surround India hold thriving biodiversity – a lot of which still remains unexplored. However, with all that we take from the ocean, are we doing enough to give back? According to the UN, “As much [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The ocean has sustained human civilisation for a long time. A source of food, livelihood and recreation, the waters that surround India hold thriving biodiversity – a lot of which still remains unexplored. However, with all that we take from the ocean, are we doing enough to give back? According to the UN, “As much as 40 percent of the ocean is now heavily affected by the most significant and direct threat of overexploitation of marine species as well as other threats such as pollution, loss of coastal habitats and climate change.” These threats have a strong impact on the lives and livelihoods of our coastal communities. About 14 percent of India’s population lives in the coastal districts of the country. This year, World Wildlife Day, a day designated by the United Nations, celebrates the theme “Life below water: for people and planet”. This day, the first one to focus on life below water, is an opportunity to spread awareness about the diversity of marine life, the services that the marine ecosystem offers to us humans and actions we need to take to ensure that we protect this resource for the coming generations. At Mongabay-India, we’ve been extensively covering stories about the marine environment and conservation efforts below water. What underwater sounds tell us about marine life An Indian Ocean humpback dolphin. Photo by Shaunak Modi. Bioacoustic research combines the study of sound and biology and is increasingly being used to understand marine mammals. Such research along the western coast&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2019/03/world-wildlife-day-6-stories-to-know-more-about-life-below-indias-water-bodies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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