Strange Squeakcies: This Frog’s Call Ain’t No Croak…
Recorded by wildlife enthusiast and photographer Dean Boshoff among the sand dunes of Port Nolloth in South Africa’s Northern Cope province, this first YouTube video of his went viral within a matter of days - and it’s easy to see why. Or, rather, hear why. You’d be forgiven for suspecting that this is nothing more than the result of some doggy-chew-toy-dub-over of a hoax. However this is the real deal folks. Yup, that sound is actually coming out of that animal!
This little sandy ball of hilarious squeaky cuteness is a desert rain frog* (Breviceps macrops). Although it has elsewhere been reported to be a mating call, the sound it’s so ardently emitting is actually a warning call, triggered by the presence of a threat such as a predator (or in this case, most likely the perceived threat of big bad Dean and his camera). Other species of frog are also known to make this type of warning call and a quick search of YouTube will bring up more examples of it, however I’ve yet been able to find one that’s quite as cute as this lil’ guy!
The desert rain frog is a fossorial species, spending most of its life buried under the sand hiding from predators (hence the state of our new celebrity) and only surfaces at night to feed. Its eggs are laid in underground chambers and are covered in a thick, viscous, jelly-like substance. Once the eggs hit tadpole stage, the jelly softens into a fluid in which they live until they fully metamorphose into frogs (absorbing nutrients from the egg yolk as they grow). This lack of dependence on water for the tadpole stage is what makes this dumpy dude particularly and uniquely suited to life in an arid environment.
So there you have it; the desert rain frog; sandy, silly, squeaky and all together supersauce, No go press play again. You know you want to, tee hee…
- *NOT, in fact, a Namaqua rain frog (Breviceps namaquensis), as it has been identified as elsewhere and indeed by my good self in an earlier version of this post (Oops, my bad!). The confusion is understandable however, as both species are extremely similar in terms of how they look, how they live and indeed where they live. While the Namaqua rain frog is not endangered, it should be noted that the desert rain frog is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List due to habitat fragmentation caused by diamond mining. So don’t all go rushing out to try and buy one from the pet stores after seeing this video! Coz that’d be bad, m’kay…
