The Hindu : Front Page : Near-extinct frog found

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Thursday, Dec 25, 2008
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Near-extinct frog found

Anand Parthasarathy

— PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

SURPRISE CATCH: The rare pig-nosed frog found in Thrissur, Kerala, has its roots in the Seychelles.

BANGALORE: A purple frog with a pig-like snout, thought to be near-extinct, has been found alive in a field close to the Kerala Forest Research Institute at Peechi near Thrissur town in Kerala.

First reported in India eight years ago, the rare frog species is closely linked to a similar frog found only in the island group of the Seychelles — suggesting the affinity between the Western Ghats and the Indian Ocean archipelago. Just over 8 cm in length and weighing 142 gm, the frog, which lives mostly under soil was found by a farm worker planting tuber crops. The KFRI researchers brought the frog to their campus and identified it as the species Nasikabatrachus sahyadrenis, never before reported in the district. ‘It is almost a living fossil,’ K.K. Ramachandran, head of the KFRI’s Wildlife Biology Division, told The Hindu.

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